Copy 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rHE REVIVAL 
 
 S OF HEALING 
 
Class 
 Book 
 
 "IS? "* 
 
 
 CopyrightN°_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
THE REVIVAL 
 
 OF 
 
 THE GIFTS OF HEALING 
 
 BY A CHURCHWOMAN 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 PRESS OP JUDD & DP/TWPJI<ER, INC. 
 
 I9IO 
 

 WW 
 
 Copyright, 1910, by Mrs. Annie E. Wood 
 
 ©CLA275365 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 To those who are working and praying for the revival 
 
 and restoration of the Healing Gifts which 
 
 our Lord left to His Church. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Chapter I. The reign of law n 
 
 II. God or mammon, life or death, sin or right- 
 eousness, health or sickness? Which shall 
 it be ? 22 
 
 III. The action and power of the mind on the 
 
 organs and functions of the body 31 
 
 IV. Jesus Christ our only Healer, the Saviour of 
 
 the whole man, body and soul 47 
 
 V. Prayer 63 
 
 VI. The hunger for bodily healing is God-implanted 88 
 VII. Testimonials 99 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 The purpose of these pages is to help to stem the tend- 
 ency to let the material overshadow the spiritual; "to 
 emphasize the presence of the Divine in man, and to 
 protest against the degradation of the spiritual life to a 
 wooden obedience to external authority." The world is 
 not worse than ever it was ; in many respects it is better. 
 Life is a spiral; again and again we come around to 
 signal epochs in the world's history, each growing more 
 subtle, demanding keener insight and more emphatic 
 warnings as the step is made to the next round. 
 
 "If the watchman see the sword come, and blow not 
 the trumpet, and the people be not warned ; if the sword 
 come and take any person from among them, he is taken 
 away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the 
 watchman's hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set 
 thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore 
 thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them 
 from me."— Ez. xxxiii : 6, 7. 
 
 Every son of man, as a follower of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, is thereby a watchman. In our Lord's plan for 
 the redemption of the body from sin's results, sickness 
 and death, we are invited and commanded to come unto 
 Him, in a definite and specific way, that we may have 
 life more abundant in the body. 
 
 The tendency today is to be satisfied with bodily patch- 
 work, with temporary alleviation of pain, to fall again 
 
8 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. , 
 
 into the same, or a hopeless, apathetic subsidence into 
 supposedly incurable diseases. It is human to desire 
 to obtain even temporary surcease of pain, but when any 
 physical disturbance is severe enough to send for the 
 doctor, the true Christian, if he believes in the gospel 
 and does, his duty, will "call for the elders of the church ; 
 and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in 
 the name of the Lord : and the prayer of faith shall save 
 the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have 
 committed sins they shall be forgiven him." In this way 
 only is sin, the source of the trouble, reached ; the patient 
 is left thereafter in a healthier condition of mind and 
 body to resist the "wiles of the devil. For we wrestle 
 not against flesh and blood" (disease is not primarily of 
 the flesh and blood), "but against principalities, against 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
 against spiritual wickedness in high places." 
 
 The writer gives her heartfelt convictions, formed 
 after many years of prayerful study and actual experi- 
 ences of herself and of others whom God has helped 
 through her; these are given simply with a hunger to 
 share the whole loaf of God's teachings and commands. 
 The effort will not have been in vain if a single reader 
 is helped to drop forever "that idea which has crept into 
 the current teaching of Christianity — that is, to teach that 
 that which Christ and His apostles declared to be a bond- 
 age of Satan; the consequence of sin; the oppression of 
 the devil — to teach that that is a spiritual blessing, or 
 in itself the means of spiritual blessing, must surely be a 
 source of great weakness to ourselves and to the whole 
 body of the church. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 9 
 
 "This was not the teaching of the apostles, as we have 
 seen. It was not the teaching of the church of the first 
 few centuries, if we may trust the general testimony of 
 the Fathers. For we find the view taken by them (it 
 is more particularly enunciated by S. Athanasius) with 
 regard to our Lord's works of healing is that they 
 formed an essential part of the work of redemption. It 
 is beautifully put by S. Irenseus, who, speaking of the 
 revelation of Christ in His works, says that 'when He 
 found His own work shattered by sin, He healed it in 
 every way! " 
 
 "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 
 God forbid." 
 
 Washington, D. C, October 21, 1910. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 THE REIGN OF LAW. 
 
 THE) RESULT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ON BODY AND SOUL. 
 
 Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing 
 shall offend them. — Ps. 119: 165. 
 
 We are in the age of the rapid discovery of new laws, 
 physical, mental, and spiritual. "Thy will be done on 
 earth as it is in heaven," uttered these many centuries, 
 is beginning to bring forth great fruit. God's will is 
 His law ; hence the laws of heaven are to work on earth 
 as in heaven, as exemplified by our Lord when He walked 
 amongst men. Man toils laboriously for years to discover 
 one law that will benefit the world; this long-drawn- 
 out process is greatly, if not entirely, due to the fact that 
 man depends too much upon his own human mind. If 
 "in the beginning" he sought the inspiration of God, and 
 daily went directly and specifically to Him for more 
 light, not only would much time and labor be saved, but 
 man would realize more rapidly the great truth that God 
 is "nearer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet;" 
 that He is interested in the smallest affairs of his life, as 
 well as in the revelation of laws to benefit all mankind. 
 
 It is related of George Miiller, the philanthropist, of 
 Bristol, England, that, as he watched a friend mending 
 a quill pen, he asked : 
 
12 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 "Do you pray to God when you mend your pen?" 
 
 The friend answered : 
 
 "It would be well to do so, but I cannot say I do pray 
 when mending- my pen." 
 
 Mr. Miiller replied: 
 
 "I always do, and so I mend my pen much better." 
 
 When he was crossing the ocean the vessel ran into a 
 dense fog. Mr. Miiller approached the captain, tapped 
 him on the shoulder, and said: 
 
 "I must be in Quebec Saturday afternoon." 
 
 It was Wednesday. 
 
 "Impossible," replied the captain. 
 
 "Very well," said Mr. Miiller; "if your ship cannot 
 take me, God will find other means to take me. I have 
 never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years." 
 
 "I would willingly help you, but how can I? I am 
 helpless," returned the captain. 
 
 "Let us go down and pray," said Mr. Miiller. 
 
 The captain wondered from what lunatic asylum the 
 man came, and he asked: 
 
 "Do you know how dense the fog is?" 
 
 "No," said Mr. Miiller. "My eye is not on the density 
 of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every 
 circumstance of my life." 
 
 The prayer was a most simple one, something like 
 this: 
 
 "O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please re- 
 move this fog in five minutes. Thou knowest the en- 
 gagement Thou didst make for me in Quebec, Saturday. 
 I believe it is Thy will." 
 
 When the captain was about to pray, Mr. Miiller said : 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 13 
 
 "No. First, you do not believe He will; secondly, I 
 believe He has, and there is no need for you to pray 
 about it. Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty- 
 seven years, and never a day have I failed to gain an 
 audience with my King. Open the door, and you will 
 find the fog gone." 
 
 It was. The captain declared this incident had changed 
 the whole aspect of life for him. Would some think it 
 was not according to natural laws? No, but it was ac- 
 cording to spiritual laws. The God with whom we have 
 to do is omnipotent. Hold on to God's omnipotence. 
 Ask believingly, and you, too, dear reader, may have a 
 daily audience with your King, and the reply will come 
 just as definitely as ever it did with Mr. Muller. 
 
 There is a law that will "add length of days and long 
 life." Isaiah declares the "work of righteousness shall 
 be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and 
 assurance forever." "Great peace" comes with the lov- 
 ing of God's law, but man cannot love a law of which he 
 knows nothing. 
 
 It is passing strange that the world will uphold and 
 applaud those who are giving their lives to discover laws 
 that reach no deeper than man's physical betterment, but 
 will raise a hue and cry and dire threatenings when 
 some one, taking God at His word, and whose soul is 
 panting for God, gives his life to discover the law of 
 righteousness, which not only means length of days and 
 long life for this world, but for the soul an eternity. 
 S. John declares, "this is life eternal, that they might 
 know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
 thou hast sent." 
 
14 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 This knowledge is obtained only through the law of 
 righteousness, and the pioneers of every upward step 
 have given their lives that others may come into the full 
 blessing. We read of men yielding up their lives by 
 being bitten by mosquitoes, thinking to prove the source 
 of some plague ; of hands and arms eaten by the X-ray, 
 and finally the end; in fact, a multitude of such experi- 
 ments; then, in later years, all these results being cast 
 on the experimental dump-heap. These men are lauded 
 as heroes, and their names handed down to feed the 
 courage of succeeding generations. But let one who has 
 a passion for God attempt to take S. Paul's advice, and 
 "present his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
 God, which is his reasonable service ; and be transformed 
 by the renewing of his mind, that he may prove what is 
 that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God," and 
 he is branded as unsane, if not insane, and dangerous to 
 the health of the community. 
 
 This materialistic view comes from looking upon man 
 as a body with a soul which is to operate in some other 
 world, instead of a soul which is striving to manifest 
 through a body here. But the hour has struck, and the 
 rankest materialist is being forced gradually to admit 
 that, above physical and mental laws, there are spiritual 
 laws which God longs to reveal to those whose "souls 
 pant after Him, as the hart panteth after the water 
 brooks." 
 
 In 1905 there was founded, in London, by Mr. James 
 Moore Hickson, the Society of Emmanuel, with the 
 Right Reverend Bishop Mylne as vice-president. On its 
 committees are active ministers of the Church of Eng- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 15 
 
 land, noted doctors, and men and women of the nobility, 
 and of active philanthropic work. This Society has been 
 formed to promote the following objects : 
 
 (1) To develop the Divine gifts left to His church by 
 the Master, especially the gift of healing by prayer and 
 laying on of hands, with the object of using these Divine 
 gifts, not only for the healing of the body, but as a means 
 of drawing the souls of men nearer to God. 
 
 (2) To form a strong wall of defence against the 
 powers of evil, by mutual united intercession, and by 
 common reception of the Holy Communion on the second 
 Sunday in the month. 
 
 (3) To safeguard the central doctrine of the Incarna- 
 tion, all members should acknowledge the Divinity of 
 our Lord, although the operations of the Society should 
 be freely used for all in need of them. 
 
 A monthly magazine is issued, The Healer, the objects 
 of which are two- fold: 
 
 1. To emphasize the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ 
 came to heal and to save the whole nature of man — his 
 body, mind and spirit. 
 
 2. To show our responsibility as followers of our 
 Lord, to receive and exercise the power which He gave 
 to His church, for the spiritual and bodily salvation of 
 man, and in deepest humility and childlike faith, to be- 
 come healers of men. 
 
 In an editorial, The Healer rejoices to tell its readers 
 that, in the June number of the British Medical Journal, 
 there are more than forty pages devoted to articles on 
 "Faith Healing." These articles are written by well- 
 known eminent medical men; they point to a revolution 
 
1 6 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 of thought in the medical scientific world, and are a very 
 remarkable sign of the times. In the leading article on 
 "Medicine and Miracles," the writer says: "For a con- 
 siderable time there has been a growing reaction against 
 the dogmatic materialism which held sway over the 
 minds of scientific men thirty or forty years ago. To 
 Huxley, Tyndall, or Herbert Spencer the expression of a 
 belief in the possibility of supernatural agency would 
 have branded a man as a fool or an impostor. Hell was, 
 it may be remembered, dismissed with costs by a high 
 judicial authority; to the man of science heaven and 
 miracles, and life and death, were explained by that 
 blessed word 'molecules.' Now science is less cock-sure 
 about a great many things, and men are not so ready as 
 they were ... to declare that what they do not 
 know is not knowledge." 
 
 Among the eminent men who contribute their views 
 are Sir Clifford Allbutt, Regius Professor of Physics in 
 the University of Cambridge; Sir Henry Morris, ex- 
 President, and Mr. Henry Butlin, President of the Royal 
 College of Surgeons; Dr. Osier, Regius Professor of 
 Medicine in the University of Oxford. 
 
 An article on "Mental Healing" traces the cures 
 wrought by the power of mind over the body from an- 
 cient days down to the present time. Amongst other 
 present-day agencies, the Society of Emmanuel is men- 
 tioned as working on these lines. To this last statement 
 the editor objects, and says: 
 
 "It is at this point that we find ourselves in disagree- 
 ment not only with the writer of the article on 'Mental 
 Healing,' but with the general conclusion to which most 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. IJ 
 
 of the articles point. We know the therapeutic value of 
 the mind and of suggestion upon a weak and ailing body, 
 and the curative effect of inspiring a patient with hope 
 in order to draw forth that inner power within which is 
 so important an aid to recovery, but this is surely not the 
 highest form of 'healing by faith.' 
 
 "A greater cure for diseased humanity has been given : 
 the cure or wholeness which comes from the touch of 
 our Lord Himself, who is waiting to heal all who come 
 to Him by faith, sometimes directly and sometimes 
 through those to whom He has entrusted His gifts of 
 healing. The Virtue' which went out of Him for the 
 healing of the mutitude must be acknowledged before we 
 can attempt to understand the mysteries of spiritual heal- 
 ing." 
 
 In another editorial the writer deplores the "vast 
 amount of ignorance which exists as to what spiritual 
 healing really means." He relates : "I was recently 
 taken to task by a friend for being a 'Faith Healer.' 
 Said his friend, 'I am sorry you have taken up with this 
 faith-healing matter ; I don't believe we are to do without 
 doctors, and simply pray and hope for healing!' Our 
 readers know that we do not by any means dispense with 
 the aid of medical men; but we do teach that, for the 
 Christian believer, there should be less clinging to the 
 material and a far closer contact with the spiritual; a 
 cleansing of the soul from all that is sinful, that Christ 
 may draw near with His healing power, and free the 
 body also of the evil of pain and sickness, for infirmities, 
 both of body and soul alike, are contrary to God's will 
 concerning man." 
 
1 8 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 This Society makes no distinction between functional 
 and organic, curable and incurable diseases. Our Lord 
 is the Healer; as in the days of old, He still heals "all 
 manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the 
 people." 
 
 A correspondent writes to a daily paper: "The king- 
 dom of heaven really and literally is at hand, if we can 
 only be brought to see it and understand it." In the 
 same issue a noted divine, in a baccalaureate sermon, 
 begs the youth, "Build your world with imagination . . . 
 and you will know happiness. Give rein to your imagi- 
 nation; thus will mere materialism be stamped out, and 
 your creation will be beautiful." 
 
 Another divine takes for his text "Grow in Grace," 
 and he tells the boys that "grace stands for the super- 
 natural, and it is weakness and cowardice to speak of 
 that word supernatural as though it need some explaining 
 away." Still another divine tells us, "A wreath of smiles 
 and a bouquet of cheerful words to the living are worth 
 more than all the blossoms in creation to the dead. Abol- 
 ish Sunday funerals, carriages, crepe, and desolation. 
 Fill your hearts and homes with sunshine." 
 
 We have here a spiritual symposium which spells noth- 
 ing less than the millennium, the second coming of our 
 Lord, when holiness will be triumphant throughout the 
 world. What a waste of splendid oratory and advice 
 if all these injunctions are to be smiled at and consid- 
 ered impracticable ! Certainly they mean the fulfillment 
 of our Lord's promise: "A new heaven and a new 
 earth, . . . and there shall be no more death, neither 
 sorrow nor crying: neither shall there be any more 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 19 
 
 pain. . . . He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
 the Spirit saith unto the churches." 
 
 Since man is responsible for these things, man is re- 
 sponsible for their destruction. Disease and death are 
 to be wiped out here and now, on this earth, by man, 
 with God's help. Reform in every department calls for 
 prevention, and the only true prevention is righteousness. 
 Man is standing on Mount Ebal, death ; just opposite rises 
 Gerizim, life. Read in a new light Deuteronomy xxviii, 
 and you will see whence cometh all the bodily diseases 
 in the world; you will also see the folly and blindness of 
 expecting man to be healed, or made immune, by either 
 inward or outward material remedies. 
 
 If it is right to stop sinning, it is right to stop dying, 
 for the "wages of sin is death," and we thus "abolish 
 Sunday funerals" and every other day funerals. Our 
 Lord protested against funeral processions when He 
 stopped the widow of Nain and raised her son. Only 
 those who are declaring life here and now are hastening 
 the Lord of Life's coming, and not those who are expect- 
 ing death and declaring it to be inevitable, who thought- 
 lessly call cases incurable when they have never been 
 laid before our Lord (Life) in prayer. 
 
 So we shall live forever, as terrible as that seemed to 
 be to one good woman, who protested, saying : "But think 
 of the numberless saints who have died and are asleep 
 in Jesus. My own saintly mother died in the true faith, 
 and I am willing to go as she went." If we had clung 
 to that idea in all reforms, what progress would the 
 world have made? If we had been satisfied with the 
 rushlight, there never would have come the candle. And 
 
20 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 so on, from candle to lamp, from lamp to gas, and then 
 to electricity. Shall we say electricity is the last? 
 
 Our Lord "groaned in the spirit and was troubled" 
 at just such clinging to a dead faith in the case of Laza- 
 rus. When he said, "Thy brother shall rise again, Mar- 
 tha said unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the 
 resurrection at the last day." Martha's reply is being 
 emphasized and perpetuated today. But what of our 
 Lord's answer, which was for Lazarus' physical body on 
 this earth? "I am the resurrection and the life; he that 
 believeth in me, though he have died (R. V.), yet shall 
 he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall 
 never die. Believest thou this?" And He raised Laza- 
 rus' body. 
 
 Why is this so persistently taught as referring to the 
 soul in some other place, when in this case Jesus emphat- 
 ically taught that it is for the body as well as the soul on 
 this earth? 
 
 Shall we say "by searching we cannot find out God? 
 cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection" ? Job did 
 not say so; he simply asked the question. Job searched, 
 and did find Him in his flesh. Our Lord said, "Be ye 
 perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Did 
 He mean it? Shall we say that it is empty theorizing? 
 That we must get to heaven ere we get these things that 
 eye hath not yet seen, nor the heart of man yet con- 
 ceived ? 
 
 The true answer is, that we do not get these things 
 when we get to heaven, but getting these things is heaven. 
 "And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never 
 die. Believest thou this" reader? "He that hath an ear, 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 21 
 
 let him hear what the Spirit (not man) saith unto the 
 churches. . . . Behold, the tabernacle of God is with 
 men, and He will dwell with them, . . . and there 
 shall be no more death." 
 
 "And who is sufficient for these things?" Every 
 Christian is responsible for perpetuating the teachings 
 of Jesus Christ, and not the ignorance of Martha. 
 
 The Holy Ghost is "bringing these things to our re- 
 membrance.". Why is God to tabernacle with men, and 
 not to dwell in a temple? Because the temple stands 
 still, and the tabernacle moves on— on into more power, 
 more glory. We are taught so much of bearing, while 
 so much of conquering is left to some future time and 
 place. Where would we be if our Lord had only borne 
 the cross, and not overcome it? His work was com- 
 plete only when He took from the enemy (grave) a per- 
 fect body, and transfigured it in the ascension. And 
 with this example we question if it is His will that our 
 bodies should be delivered from weakness, disease and 
 death, which He declared were the bondage of Satan. 
 Above all prayers today, we need to pray that the veil, 
 cast over our eyes by Satan, shall be removed by Christ's 
 teachings and example, and thus have revealed to us His 
 law, His will, that sin may no longer reign in our mortal 
 bodies. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 GOD OR MAMMON, LIFE OR DEATH, SIN OR 
 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS, HEALTH OR SICKNESS? 
 
 WHICH SHALL IT BE? 
 
 But first be eager about His kingdom, about what He 
 thinks right, and then all these things shall be given to 
 you in addition. — Twentieth Century New Testament. 
 
 In philanthropic work and the general betterment of 
 humanity there is much of putting the cart before the 
 horse, and later finding out the dismal fact that the 
 wagon refuses to go. In numberless books and endless 
 magazine articles, we are given a bewildering variety of 
 possibilities for the physical and mental transformation 
 of the human race. These are heralded as veritable 
 steps to the millennium. 
 
 One writer tells us of the marvelous physical and men- 
 tal results, and youth in old age, of breathing and exer- 
 cise combined with a healthy mental state. Another has 
 proven that "tent life" will do it all, and a food faddist 
 advises a "return to nature and natural foods" as the 
 panacea for all ills and the source of a quiet mind. An 
 eminent physician gets nearer to the truth when he de- 
 clares "it is better to run any unhygienic risks than to 
 become absorbed with hygiene," and that "unhealthy 
 organs are of less importance than an unhealthy mind." 
 
 Doubtless man is benefited by all of these advisements, 
 but they do not fulfill the counsel of our Lord when He 
 said, "But first be eager about His kingdom, and about 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 23 
 
 what He thinks right, and then all these things will be 
 given to you in addition." When man "abides in the 
 secret place of the Most High" he has fulness of breath, 
 and deep breathing follows as a logical and automatic 
 sequence. When man permits the things of earth to cut 
 him off from the Father, fear, anxiety, worry and all 
 their evil concomitants cut off his breathing; he only half 
 breathes, and then, instead of giving all his attention to 
 the physical, if the prodigal would return to his Father 
 and His abode, he would restore both body and soul 
 through spirit; thus the entire man would be fed, and 
 the image and likeness of God brought to light. 
 
 The Christian religion should make true mystics of 
 all its followers. True mysticism "excludes all that goes 
 under the name of occult; it belongs to religion only, 
 and states the fact that the spiritual part of man is so 
 constituted by its Maker that it is possible for him to 
 have intimate intercourse with God. Mystic movements 
 have always existed to emphasize the presence of the 
 Divine in man, and to protest against the degradation of 
 the spiritual life to a wooden obedience to external au- 
 thority." 
 
 "Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord," 
 makes us "kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign 
 on the earth." From Genesis to Revelation this is the 
 rule of life, the spiritual first and the material follows — 
 "In the beginning, God." In Eden, Adam and Eve 
 talked and walked with God; so also prophets, priests 
 and kings. S. John veritably brings heaven to earth, 
 showing our angel attendants, and the cry of humanity 
 and the answer of God, the Bride and the Bridegroom, 
 wedded 
 
24 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 In the first efforts to attain this promised nuptial, man 
 will "eat the bread of adversity and drink the water of 
 affliction/' but the promise is true, and not only can be 
 realized, but must be, that when man does truly and per- 
 sistently "dwell in the secret place of the Most High," 
 his "eyes shall see his teachers : and his ears shall hear a 
 word, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye 
 turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." 
 
 S. Paul declares that with all the true and loyal follow- 
 ers of our Lord Jesus Christ is made a new covenant. 
 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house 
 of Israel, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their 
 minds, and write them in their hearts : and they shall not 
 teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, 
 saying, Know the Lord : for all shall know me, from the 
 least to the greatest." 
 
 Moses received his laws of hygiene direct from God; 
 from that day to this no laws promulgated by man have 
 ever superseded them, and one doctor declares that if 
 truly followed longevity would rapidly increase. In the 
 theological and medical chaos of today, the Bible stands 
 supreme as teacher and guide for body and soul — all that 
 the whole man needs is found in its pages. The "bread 
 of adversity and the water of affliction" are the result 
 of the friction of those who have a passion for God, with 
 those who are "degrading the spiritual life to a wooden 
 obedience to external authority." 
 
 Dissecting the animal kingdom, and watching the 
 things below, is not God's plan for the healing of man. 
 "Saith the Holy One, lift up your eyes on high, and be- 
 hold who hath created these things, that bringeth out 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 25 
 
 their host by number: he calleth them all by names, by 
 the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, 
 not one faileth." 
 
 Man can never be permanently benefited by research 
 among animals and the creatures of lower kingdoms. 
 That which acts one way on a dog or a cat may take the 
 opposite course, or even be annulled by man, for the su- 
 preme reason that man has a conscience, a mind, and a 
 soul, and is the image of his Creator. 
 
 When the viper fastened upon the hand of S. Paul, 
 "he shook ofif the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 
 Howbeit, they looked when he should have swollen, or 
 fallen down dead suddenly; but after they had looked a 
 great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed 
 their minds, and said that he was a god." Now S. Paul 
 had been only recently converted, hence was still a man 
 of passion like others; but there had been a recrudes- 
 cence of his faith. He had seen and talked with God, 
 and instead of filling himself with poisonous liquors or 
 serums, he drew upon the Spirit of life, which cast out, 
 or neutralized, the poison of the lower kingdoms. 
 
 This is now, and always will be, the privilege of every 
 one who wholly, not half way, believes in our Lord and 
 His promises, and to the Christian a spiritual privilege is 
 a spiritual duty. "And these signs shall" (not may) 
 "follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast 
 out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall 
 take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it 
 shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and 
 they shall recover." 
 
26 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Many professing Christians merely read these things,. 
 relegate them to the past and to "gods," but do not 
 whole-heartedly believe. A missionary related the case 
 of a converted African who had gone among the wild 
 tribes, and had angered them by loosening their faith in 
 gods of stone and wood. He was condemned to drink 
 a deadly draught. As he lifted it to his lips, he raised 
 his eyes to heaven, and with all his faith cried to the 
 Lord : "It is in thy power to prevent this poison working 
 in my body. I have been doing thy work, and if Thou 
 dost want me in the field Thou wilt save me." The 
 draught was as harmless as water, and many were con- 
 verted. This is making practical the law of righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 The Hebrews believed and practiced this law in the 
 ceremony of proving woman's purity. Why is faith to- 
 day so devitalized that many Christians feel powerless in 
 similar experiences? Is not the God of Jacob still their 
 refuge? If, as a writer predicts, "society will some time 
 form an amicable conspiracy to suggest the thoughts that 
 make for mental and moral health," when will Christians 
 determine to league together and "be not afraid of sud- 
 den fear" ? 
 
 Pills, pellets, and serums will never wipe disease from 
 this earth. Instead of putting poison in the body, the 
 poison already in the mind must be drawn out, even the 
 poison of envy, hatred and malice, and the deadening 
 draughts of doubt and unbelief. The whole situation is 
 vividly described in that marvelous and comprehensive 
 twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. There may be 
 found the rules to obtain the heart's desires on this earth, 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 27 
 
 and the peace that passeth understanding for the soul — 
 blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. 
 
 "The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, 
 until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither 
 thou goest to possess it. 
 
 "The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and 
 with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an ex- 
 treme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, 
 and with mildew: and they shall pursue thee until thou 
 perish. 
 
 "The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, 
 and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the 
 itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. 
 
 "The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blind- 
 ness, and astonishment of heart : 
 
 "And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind 
 gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy 
 ways : and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled ever- 
 more, and no man shall save thee." 
 
 In this catalogue of evils we find all the physical and 
 mental troubles in the world. The punishment is not 
 arbitrary, but a matter of cause and effect. The Lord 
 does not tell us to cast them out by filling our bodies with 
 poisons from the lower kingdoms, but to turn unto Him, 
 and "hearken diligently to His voice." When a beloved 
 Bishop commented on an earthquake in terms similar to 
 those in Deuteronomy, there were some who demurred. 
 The day must dawn when all diseases, all earthquakes, 
 all plagues will be placed by believing Christians where 
 God places them, and the only true remedy a return to 
 righteousness. 
 
28 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 In a sermon on the demoralizing grafts of today, the 
 preacher emphatically declared that when men are truer 
 and kinder, and fulfill the law of brotherhood, all sick- 
 ness and disease will vanish from the earth. "Then 
 stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so (by 
 this means) the plague was stayed." The atonement of 
 Aaron and the prayers of David stayed plagues ; the arm 
 of the Lord was their refuge. 
 
 If the splendid talents, energies and fortunes now given 
 to finding more poisons for men's bodies were expended 
 in cleaning up slums, building sanitary homes for people 
 of small means, and paying better wages to disheartened 
 toilers, in other words, loving one's neighbor as one's 
 self, the problem of sin and its physical ills would be 
 more than half solved, and the peculiar diseases that are 
 puzzling earnest doctors would disappear. 
 
 When the sick came to our Lord, He drew them unto 
 Himself, poured His virtue into them, and healed all 
 manner of sickness and disease, the lame, and the blind. 
 That Fountain of healing virtue for men's bodies is "with 
 us alway, even unto the end." It is not desirable to 
 knock away previously the crutches of the world as man- 
 ifested in wise medical or surgical aids, but they are just 
 that, only crutches — the world's invention to hold up 
 groping man till a greater help comes, even the "ever- 
 lasting arms." 
 
 Because the "wideness of God's mercy is like the wide- 
 ness of the sea," His love so ready and compassionate, 
 and His heart yearns to see the "health of the daughter 
 of His people recovered," He lets His blessing descend 
 upon the means employed, but it is always His blessing 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 29 
 
 that heals, and not the means employed. The Bible 
 teaches this emphatically and persistently. "By grace 
 are ye saved through faith," body and soul. Dr. Alfred 
 Taylor Schofield, the noted English physician, surgeon 
 and psychologist, tells us as much in a recent address on 
 the "Limitation of Medical Science and Mental Healing." 
 He makes this striking announcement : 
 
 "Now what is a faith cure? Does the cure depend 
 upon the faith, or upon the object on which the faith 
 rests? If the cure depends upon the intrinsic faith itself, 
 it is psychic rather than spiritual in its action. If it de- 
 pends upon the extrinsic object on which the faith rests, 
 and that object is Divine, the cure is undoubtedly dis- 
 tinctly spiritual in its nature, so that a faith cure may 
 mean a psychic cure or a spiritual cure. And now I want 
 to say something for which, perhaps, some of this audi- 
 ence are hardly prepared, but which twenty or more 
 years of close, careful and prayerful observation lead me 
 to believe is absolutely correct, and it is this : In purely 
 physical cures it is the faith that cures. The object on 
 which that faith rests is absolutely indifferent to the cure ; 
 that is to say, the cure is the same, whatever the ob- 
 jective may be before the eye of faith at the time: 
 whereas, In all soul and spiritual cures the objective on 
 which the faith rests is everything. 
 
 "To illustrate: In physical cures the faith may rest, 
 and has rested, on a thermometer in the mouth, on a 
 medicine containing nothing but pure water, on the repu- 
 tation of a clever doctor, or an impostor, or idols in 
 heathen temples. . . . When we understand that in 
 physical disease it is the faith that cures and the object 
 
30 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 on which it rests is indifferent, but in soul and spiritual 
 healing the object of the faith is all, we see how it is 
 that we get equal physical cures from the bones of mar- 
 tyrs, the dead bodies of saints, the imaginary miraculous 
 appearances of the Virgin, the Holy Coat of Treves, as 
 we do in Christianity. In soul and spiritual cures the 
 object is all-important, and for true blessing must be 
 Divine." 
 
 In the light of these acknowledgments from so reliable 
 a source, that question of our Lord, "when I come again 
 shall I find the faith upon the earth?" sinks into the 
 Christian's soul with a deeper and more striking signifi- 
 cance. Is his faith wholly in the Lord, or partly in Him 
 and partly in man's inventions? However deeply em- 
 bedded may be the training that sickness is wholly physi- 
 cal, for him who truly believes the Bible, and takes that 
 Book as his guide and light, there must come the time 
 when this wrong training will have to be uprooted. 
 Deuteronomy xxviii is a direct inspiration from God, and 
 unmincingly declares that all diseases, sicknesses and 
 calamities are the result of sin — of omission or commis- 
 sion — and that righteousness alone will cleanse from un- 
 righteousness and its sequelae, sickness and death. The 
 righteousness that exalteth a nation, healeth it. 
 
 "The wages of sin is death" to the body as to the soul ; 
 the dying begins in the soul, and the body, which is but 
 the expression of the soul, has no choice but to follow 
 where the soul leads. "All one body we" explains why 
 the infant and the saintly person suffer physically for the 
 sins of the world. Every discord, whether physical or 
 mental, is felt, however infinitesimally, by the whole crea- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 31 
 
 tion — "for we know that the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain together until now, . . . wait- 
 ing for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our 
 body" — the full redemption of the whole man. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE ACTION AND POWER OF THE MIND ON THE 
 ORGANS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE BODY. 
 
 But I see another law in my members, warring against 
 the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the 
 lazv of sin which is in my members. — Rom. vii : 25. 
 
 In Romans vi, vii, viii, S. Paul, the psychologist of the 
 New Testament, gives us the full law for the redemption 
 of the body. All the books that have ever been written 
 on psychology and suggestive therapeutics can never 
 equal these chapters in fulness and completeness, for 
 they all lack the vigorous adjustment of S. Paul's cap- 
 sheaf, that supreme and happy climax in the closing 
 verses of chapter viii, that only through Jesus Christ, our 
 Lord, are we conquerors, and through Him nothing in 
 earth or heaven can dismay. 
 
 Body and soul together are necessary for man's in- 
 tegrity. By His mighty works in healing the body, our 
 Lord taught His unwillingness to sacrifice one to the 
 other ; knowing that man must always have a form, that 
 form He wished preserved for use, so He commanded 
 and empowered His followers to heal the body as well as 
 preach to the soul. The church did this for six centuries 
 
32 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 after the ascension, and one of the Early Fathers de- 
 clared that it was only when the church became un- 
 worthy through materialism that our Lord's co-operation 
 was withdrawn. 
 
 Irenseus (A. D. 120-202), writing against heresies, 
 states : "For they can neither confer sight on the blind, 
 nor hearing on the deaf, nor chase away all sorts of 
 demons — none, indeed — except those that are sent into 
 others by themselves, if they can even do so much as this. 
 Nor can they cure the weak, or the lame, or the para- 
 lytic, or those who are distressed in any other part of the 
 body, as has often been done in regard to bodily infirm- 
 ity. Nor can they furnish effective remedies for those 
 external accidents which occur. And so far are they 
 from being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised 
 them, and the apostles did by means of prayer, and has 
 been frequently done in the brotherhood on account of 
 some necessity — the entire church in that particular local- 
 ity entreating (the boon) with much fasting and prayer, 
 and the spirit of the dead has returned, and he has been 
 bestowed in answer to the prayers of the saints — that 
 they do not even believe this can possibly be done (and 
 hold) that the resurrection from the dead (II Tim. ii: 
 17, 18) is simply an acquaintance with that truth which 
 they proclaim." 
 
 As nature abhors a vacuum, an unused place, so God 
 abhors unused power. Since the church has failed to 
 use the legacy left by our Lord, it is being explained and 
 utilized by material scientists, who are writing volumes 
 on the place and power of mind; in many cases leaving 
 out our Lord so completely that the soul is being con- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 33 
 
 fused and prostituted by the human will working for 
 earth alone. The church is responsible for this confu- 
 sion. 
 
 Man is a trinity — mind, soul, and spirit; these, though 
 allied, are not identical ; they differ in degree ; the mental 
 functionings are so wonderful and satisfying, that the 
 man who is submerged in mind alone is in danger of be- 
 coming imbued with the idea that he does not need a 
 God, and certainly no special Saviour of the world is re- 
 quired. Just here is where the church can step in and 
 convince man that though his body may be apparently 
 healthy and strong temporarily through will-power, yet, 
 for his perfect integrity and future well-being, his soul 
 must be fed by the living God, the "Power, not his own, 
 that maketh for righteousness." 
 
 Christians should know the practical and physiological 
 truth that is voiced in S. Paul's philosophy of the law of 
 mind working in the body. Freedom and transfigura- 
 tion for the whole man is S. Paul's slogan. Just as man 
 begins with creeping, ere he walks and runs, so in our 
 orderly approach to God we begin with the law of mind. 
 "As a man thinketh, so is he" in body and soul, declared 
 Job, and he proved it. While his thoughts were waver- 
 ing, and his mind was confused by well-meaning friends 
 (many Christians would progress more rapidly if deliv- 
 ered from some of their friends), the disease in his body, 
 which was from Satan, triumphed ; but when in despera- 
 tion, instead of cursing God, he cried, "Though He slay 
 me yet will I trust Him," he was delivered by the strength 
 of his mind and the power of his words from a most 
 loathsome form of leprosy. 
 3 
 
34 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Psychotherapy, suggestive therapeutics, and the like 
 are the mental John-the-Baptist, the washing, the cleans- 
 ing process ; the voice crying in the mental wilderness of 
 earthy, rebellious thought, "prepare ye the way of the 
 Lord, make His paths straight." Jesus said, "Elias truly 
 shall first come and restore all things." So these laws 
 of psychology enable us to wash away worry, hurry, envy, 
 hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness ; the wind, the 
 earthquake and the fire are no more; then is man fit and 
 ready to hear the still, small voice — the path is made 
 straight for the Lord to come with His healing. 
 
 Whether few or many understand, we are facing the 
 fact that mental and spiritual healing is upon us. It is 
 traversing the globe, attended with good and healthful 
 results. The problem is not solved, nor is the subject 
 dismissed by stolid indifference, denial and scoffing. The 
 power of mind over matter is becoming a trite expression, 
 but, like all such abstract statements, it is repeated parrot- 
 like for a long while ere the majority recognizes it as a 
 law that can be grasped and utilized in daily life, from 
 the most trivial acts to events of signal importance. The 
 power of Spirit over both mind and matter is not so 
 clearly seen nor willingly admitted. 
 
 Morse and Marconi, delving amidst subtle forces, were 
 scoffed and called dreamers. Men forgot that it has ever 
 been the dreamers who have gone before, fed the famine- 
 stricken, set the people free, and brought them into a land 
 of milk and honey. As God was with Moses, Joseph, 
 and others, so will He ever uphold the dreamers who are 
 willing to meet derision in order to give life more abun- 
 dant. We cannot reckon the number of lives saved by 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 35 
 
 Morse and Marconi. More refined, more subtle their 
 modes of reception and utilization of unseen forces ; less 
 and less dependence upon externals. 
 
 Now that quietly daring and wonderful Marconi, along 
 with others, is telling us of telepathy ; no mechanical de- 
 vice of man's hands at either end, no visible wires. 
 Again the people begin to smile, but that smile, here and 
 there, is dying on their lips, or at least held in abeyance. 
 Wonderful things are coming so swiftly, marvelous re- 
 sults are so recent. No one wants to be found on the 
 losing side, and so we wait. Less and less dependence 
 upon externals, more and more dependence upon the 
 direct arm of God. Closer communion with the Lord 
 and Giver of life; more unwavering abiding under the 
 shadow of the Almighty — conditions fulfilled and the 
 promised exemption from plague and pestilence, "they 
 shall not come nigh thy dwelling" (body, R. V.). A 
 veritable passover for body and soul. 
 
 The root of life is character; character is habits, and 
 the home of habits is the mind; hence mind is the first 
 rung of the ladder, the starting point to higher things. 
 We may not yet know the how, but we are daily proving 
 the results of weak and strong emotions on the body. 
 Fear is the basis of all destructive emotions, all troubles, 
 mental and physical. Doubt, fear, apprehension, and 
 expressions of these are disintegrating; they always 
 weaken and tear down tissues and organs. They will 
 loosen internal walls, and when organs have fallen, there 
 is no internal or external remedy that can equal the con- 
 structive and restorative power of hope, courage, joyful 
 expectation and a close communion with God in building 
 up these walls and replacing the organs. 
 
36 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Many operations for these things are a desecration to 
 the "temple of the Holy Ghost." We are almost losing 
 sight of the sacredness of the body when we allow it to 
 be rushed to the operating table under the slightest pre- 
 tense. Wise physicians are recognizing this, and in 
 papers and magazines are deploring the operating mania. 
 It would seem as if man is presuming to know better than 
 God what man should have in his body. 
 
 Dr. A. T. Schofield, in a recent lecture, said: "There 
 can be no doubt that all disease is partly caused and partly 
 cured by mind. In this I do not limit my statement to 
 functional disease at all. The distinction between func- 
 tional and organic disease is, in its last analysis, merely 
 a confession of our own ignorance, for there can be no 
 doubt that there can be no organic disease without func- 
 tional disturbance, and there can be no functional de- 
 rangement without at the bottom some organic change. 
 As proof that mental healing has power over material 
 disease, I may instance the wonderful power it has over 
 the painfully prosaic and plebeian disease, if you may 
 call it disease, or affliction, of warts. These have shown 
 themselves from the earliest times peculiarly susceptible 
 to mental influence from some cause as yet unknown to 
 us. Varicose veins also may be mentioned among other 
 organic diseases as in many cases having been cured, as 
 far as we know, by mental therapeutics only. Tumors, 
 too, of all sorts, seem amenable to this power. I know 
 of fifty cases of internal tumors sent into a London hos- 
 pital for operation, certified as being tumors requiring 
 operation by medical men of skill and experience, and not 
 one of them required operation, and all of them disap- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 37 
 
 peared under the most simple treatment. I, myself, was 
 the means of causing one to disappear, and I saw how 
 remarkably the whole large, pulsating tumor absolutely 
 vanished." 
 
 Facing the frightful increase in suicides and man- 
 slaughter amongst children and adults, an evidence of 
 the lower valuation of the body, the statement, so often 
 made, even by ministers, that bodily healing is made too 
 much of, should be revised. Pulpit and pew aid, abet 
 and encourage more hospitals, sanitariums, institutes for 
 research, and everything of man's device for relieving 
 effects ; but let an institute, or body of people, rise up 
 for the spiritual healing of our Lord, which alone can 
 touch the cause of any trouble or derangement of body 
 or mind, and the hue and cry go forth, "You make too 
 much of bodily healing; the soul is more important than 
 the body." 
 
 Says Mr. J. M. Hickson, of London: "Let us look at 
 the question from a purely practical point of view. What 
 do we do when any one belonging to us is ill ? We send 
 for the doctor and do all we can for the recovery of the 
 sick person. We assume at once, without question, that 
 the patient should be made well as soon as possible. We 
 do not first deliberate whether it is God's will that he 
 should be healed; we do not say that it may be God's 
 will he should continue to suffer ; no, we do all we can to 
 relieve his suffering. How, then, is it, when we come 
 to the question of healing by spiritual means, we imme- 
 diately begin to ask if it is God's will he should be healed; 
 why do we hesitate to use the very means which our Lord 
 enjoined to be used in the case of the sick? Does not 
 
38 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 the very fact that His life was a ministry of healing prove 
 to us that His will is to do now, through His servants, 
 what He Himself did in person in the days of His visible 
 Presence among us ? If it is doubtful whether we should 
 use spiritual means of healing, it must be still more 
 doubtful whether we should use physical means, which 
 have not been enjoined upon us as Christians at all." 
 
 Rev. G. P. Trevelyan, Vicar of S. Alban's, England, 
 says: "A very large number of people have undoubtedly 
 been cured of both organic and functional diseases apart 
 from the use of the ordinary methods employed by the 
 medical and surgical professions. The people who have 
 been able to exercise such healing give different accounts 
 of their power. Some of them find the explanation of 
 that power in physical characteristics within themselves, 
 by which they are able to influence the mind of the suf- 
 ferer and strengthen it to cast off disease. These are 
 generally spoken of as 'mental healers,' and the method 
 they employ is called 'suggestion.' The term 'spiritual 
 healer' is applied to those who look upon the effects which 
 they are able to produce as the result of prayer and the 
 mission of our Lord Jesus Christ to heal. It would be 
 well to include under the term 'spiritual healer' the work 
 of all those who believe that they are the means of bring- 
 ing our Lord into contact with the patients, that His life 
 may flow out to them for healing, and under 'mental 
 healing' the work of those whose chief concern is with 
 certain natural powers within themselves which have 
 effect in the arrest and conquest of disease." 
 
 It is a psychological maxim that "every mental repre- 
 sentation is followed by a physical sensation." As a 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 39 
 
 free, moral agent, man can think constructively or de- 
 structively; health or disease, life or death; but when he 
 has allowed himself to fall into the constant habit of 
 fear, evil and worry, it is worse than useless to tell him 
 not to do these things; it is as aggravating as to tell an 
 angry man not to get angry. The law of substitution is 
 his only salvation. Doctor Gulick declares: "Nobody 
 stops worrying by good resolutions — the mind does not 
 work that way. Act the way a cheerful man should act, 
 talk and walk cheerfully, eat what a cheerful man eats, 
 and after a time the emotion slips into line with the as- 
 sumed attitude, and man becomes what he has been pre- 
 tending." "Let the weak say, I am strong" (Joel iii: 10), 
 means just this. 
 
 Doctor Gulick continues : "Exchanging symptoms is a 
 vicious pastime, and makes symptoms worse; it is con- 
 tagious and gives them to other people by suggestion; 
 . . . no part of the body, except the muscular system, 
 is so much affected by states of mind as the digestive and 
 excretory organs; . . . discouragement and low 
 spirits lead to constipation," showing that mind is con- 
 stipated before the body. 
 
 A noted Chicago minister preached a sermon on the 
 good effect of hearty laughter. He bade sick people 
 laugh, jiggle the diaphragm, and get well. A hearty 
 laugh produces that "alternate contraction and relaxation 
 which is one of the main factors in keeping the liver 
 working well." The stomach is exceedingly sensitive 
 to mental feelings of disgust and satisfaction. Never 
 relate or remark at the table anything discordant of 
 affairs, food, or body. Never ask a guest, or member 
 
40 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 of a family, when coming to the table, how he feels, if 
 he slept well, or if he has an appetite. Take these things 
 for granted, and that he comes to the table as a Christian, 
 to obey the Christian's mandate, to "eat what is set be- 
 fore him for conscience sake," and know that he "has 
 power to eat and to drink" (I Cor. ix: 4). There are so 
 many delightful and invigorating subjects which one can 
 discuss with benefit, that it is inexcusable at meal times 
 to bring up subjects that tend to undermine and disin- 
 tegrate the body. 
 
 A good man and pillar of his church, while on a visit 
 to some friends, was asked to pronounce the blessing 
 before meals; it was helpful, but lengthy. God's mercy 
 and loving care were extolled. He was asked to bless 
 all food with health and strength for the body and the 
 day's work, and to bless all who received it. Then that 
 good man, thinking he was trusting God and His prom- 
 ises, would take for his portion a small piece of bread 
 and a few drops of gravy. He feared offending his di- 
 gestive organs more than he feared God. The hostess, 
 who did her own housework and tried to place before the 
 guest the most tempting viands, grew righteously indig- 
 nant, and exclaimed to a member of the family, "If I 
 said a blessing like that, I'd show that I tried to trust 
 God by eating something, if I had a pain in my stomach 
 for a month." 
 
 Some of us who are truly trying to be Christians hesi- 
 tate before going from house to house with some sad, 
 shocking tale of our neighbor's weakness or dereliction ; 
 some of us hesitate to open the closet door of the family 
 skeleton to every passer-by; yet with seeming gusto and 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 41 
 
 delight we fairly rush to each other's arms, and rolling 
 them like sweet morsels under the tongue, relate in tire- 
 some and fatal detail the aches, pains and diseases of 
 every member of the family and the neighborhood — igno- 
 rant of the fact that, by the law of suggestion, fear is 
 implanted; and if the picture of the disease is held long 
 and seriously enough, that is all the microbe and germ 
 that you need. Job tells you so : "the thing that I greatly 
 feared has come upon me." All thought tends to ma- 
 terialize. "For thoughts are things, endowed with 
 bodies, breath and wings," says a bright metaphysical 
 writer. 
 
 A student of metaphysics, who had been cured of a 
 disgusting trouble, was relating how bad she had been, 
 what she had done, and how she had been cured. During 
 the recitation she began to show every symptom of the 
 trouble. She stopped, laughed, and said: "There, you 
 see what suggestion will do. I know that I am cured of 
 that trouble, and yet I am so suggestible that the rela- 
 tion of it gives me the surface symptoms." The lady to 
 whom she was relating it replied: "I do not intend that 
 you shall hand it over to me, but this experience should 
 prove to you the weakness and the wickedness of ever 
 again relating that trouble in detail as you have just 
 done." 
 
 It was on this principle that our Lord bade those whom 
 He healed "tell no man," until the cure was thoroughly 
 established in mind and body. 
 
 A lady studying in a public library had her attention 
 drawn to a woman who came in sniffling; knowing the 
 law of psychical contagion, she declared to herself em- 
 
42 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 phatically, "I do not intend to do that; that trouble shall 
 not be transferred to me." Soon another woman came 
 in, and the sniffler went over and sat near her. In a few 
 minutes the second woman began to sniffle, and the first 
 one ceased almost entirely. She seemed to have been 
 released when the other woman was weak or ignorant 
 enough to accept her cast-off bondage. Then the sniffler 
 left the room apparently greatly relieved, and the second 
 woman ceased sniffling. This is the law that works in 
 all physical contagion. 
 
 Doctor Dubois declares : "A mental suggestion creates 
 a sensation just as long as it is not dissipated by a con- 
 trary auto-suggestion ; . . . properly speaking, there 
 is no physical suffering; it is always psychic. . . , 
 There are those who are so impressionable, that on hear- 
 ing of a malady they at once feel the symptoms ; . . . 
 nobody is absolutely refractory to suggestion. Educa- 
 tion only will deliver. Reason is the sieve which stops 
 unhealthy suggestions, and allows only those to pass 
 which lead us in the way of truth. . . . The battle 
 against all this is one of moral resistance, and not of 
 physical health!' 
 
 A young girl was approached by another who began to 
 relate a mutual friend's illness. Remembering her own 
 discomfort with a similar attack, she begged the girl to 
 desist; this caused amusement, and details were thrust 
 upon her. Putting her fingers in her ears, she began to 
 run ; the other girl followed, crying out the name of the 
 disease as she ran. In a week or more the annoyed girl 
 was seized with the trouble. The physician who was 
 called in, knowing she had once had it, and never having 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 43 
 
 heard of a second attack, concluded it must be something 
 worse ; a consultation of physicians pronounced it the 
 same old trouble. That young woman has since learned 
 that a "mental suggestion creates a sensation just as long 
 as it is not dissipated by a contrary auto-suggestion," and 
 that "the thing that she greatly fears will come upon 
 her," She is wiser, hence stronger. 
 
 There is a suggestive or psychical stage to all diseases ; 
 if taken in. time the disease will never become physical. 
 A young girl who had been coughing for some days was 
 discovered by her mother to be in the first stages of 
 whooping-cough. Knowing the truth of Sir John 
 Forbes' statement that "means acting directly on the 
 mind are fully as powerful and effective in disease of a 
 purely bodily character as in mental disease," the Lord's 
 Prayer was repeated morning and evening by mother 
 and daughter, for the specific purpose of bringing to pass 
 the "Lord's will on earth as in heaven" in this case ; also 
 there was read Psalm xci, which was assimilated and put 
 into practice. In another week every vestige of the 
 whooping-cough had disappeared. 
 
 On the discovery of the trouble the mother said to her 
 son, very firmly, "See to it that you do not let this thing 
 come upon you." He replied: "I have already done so. 
 It attacked me yesterday, and I conquered." These chil- 
 dren never had any of the diseases peculiar to childhood, 
 solely because they were kept "dwelling in the secret 
 place of the Most High," where "nothing that maketh or 
 worketh a lie can enter." "The battle against all this is 
 one of moral resistance, and not of physical health/ 3 
 
44 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 In discussing moving-picture shows and their baneful 
 influence upon the youthful mind, parents should take to 
 heart the tremendous import of the law of psychology 
 that "every mental representation is followed by a physi- 
 cal sensation." A gentleman stepped into one of these 
 shows for the purpose of learning the nature of the sub- 
 jects dispensed to the many children who frequented the 
 place. In one of the pictures the cruelty to creatures of 
 the lower world was so revolting that he came out nau- 
 seated. 
 
 Let parents consider such effects, and it will explain 
 many physical disorders for which they cannot account. 
 It should also suggest a scarcity of nickels to feed the 
 poisoning of the minds and bodies of their offspring. 
 
 Aside from any temporary discomfort, the effect 
 reaches much further. Each generation is making the 
 standard for the next. Today we find children, from the 
 smallest tot up, fed the excitement of a lower order of 
 things, and we rarely see a child who is able to sit still 
 for fifteen minutes and listen with pleasure to anything 
 calming, enlightening and spiritualizing. 
 
 We fondly fancy that we are wonderfully in advance 
 of the ancient Greeks in all that pertains to the world's 
 progress, but how many prospective mothers take heed 
 to behold daily some beautiful ideal in painting, sculpture, 
 and such, that the next generation may be perfectly 
 moulded in face and form. The Greeks knew that 
 "every mental representation is followed by a physical 
 sensation," and lived up to it. Children who are fed on 
 excitement and low ideals are not apt to "lift up their 
 eyes unto the hills" when parenthood comes upon them. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 45 
 
 In moulding youthful temperaments, the practical im- 
 port of the law of the human mind declared by S. Paul, 
 "I find then a law, that when I would do good evil is 
 present with me," is a powerful factor in solving the 
 problem of Christian discipline. All true mothers early 
 recognize wrong tendencies, and they will find that dis- 
 cipline is expedited and rendered more effective if they 
 will more generally supplant the nagging and tiresome 
 "Do not that" for "Do this." Thus the "evil that is pres- 
 ent" is not aroused and exhibited, and the "law that 
 would do good" is fed and strengthened. 
 
 The carnal enslaves; the spiritual giveth life and free- 
 dom. Spinoza epigrammatically states it : "Acting under 
 the notion of the bad is slavery ; under the notion of the 
 good, freedom." Children may be reared slaves or free- 
 men. The child, just from heaven, can be early accus- 
 tomed to seek the things of its natural habitat. 
 
 A man who had just moved into his new home was 
 annoyed by a neighbor's children running on the newly 
 planted grass. He stretched a wire between his lawn 
 and the adjacent one, but, being low enough for the boys 
 to step over, the nuisance continued. One day the larger 
 lad said gleefully to a lady in whom he had much confi- 
 dence: "Doctor M — thinks he can keep us out by that 
 wire, but we can step over it." 
 
 "O, no," quietly and impressively the lady replied; 
 "Doctor M — knew that you could step over the wire, but 
 he thought you were a good little boy, who wanted his 
 yard to look pretty like yours. He thought you forgot 
 sometimes, so he put the wire there to help you remem- 
 ber ; and then he knew you would be glad to keep off and 
 help the little grass blades to grow green and happy." 
 
46 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 As he listened, his face grew first serious, then bright, 
 as the happy green grass was mentioned. It was the end 
 of the trespassing. The "notion of the good" had tri- 
 umphed. The spiritual arose above the carnal, and the 
 child of God was one step nearer freedom. 
 
 There are mental and physical ailments that will never 
 yield to a merely cheerful philosophy or any form of 
 psychotherapy, but which can be vanquished by deeply 
 spiritual means, when that "grace by which we are saved, 
 through faith," is allowed to pour into the whole being, 
 body and soul — that healing "virtue" which our Lord 
 "perceived" had entered into the long-suffering woman 
 of true and abiding faith. 
 
 It is possible for a mental practitioner to believe in his 
 own mind and its powers, and yet declare himself an 
 agnostic in regard to the truly spiritual and deep things 
 of God. Mental powers may temporarily alleviate the 
 discords of the body, and draw man to man, but they 
 may never attempt to unite man with God, the meaning 
 of true religion — a binding back to God. The forces of 
 mind are good and valuable, and we are not to under- 
 estimate the therapeutic value of cheerful thoughts and 
 expressions. The Psalmist gave us the unchanging law 
 of suggestive therapeutics when he said, "A merry heart 
 doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth 
 the bones." A real thing has permeated the system, far 
 more real and lasting than any internal or external rem- 
 edy which the eyes behold. 
 
 The Great Physician warned us of the present day's 
 exhibition of mental forces when He declared: "Many 
 will say to me, in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 47 
 
 prophesied in thy name ? And in thy name have cast out 
 devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 
 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; 
 depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Here we have 
 a strong and striking denunciation of wonderful works 
 that gave a temporary relief to man. It is an imperative 
 demand upon the church to safeguard the true healing 
 of our Lord. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST OUR ONLY HEALER, THE SAVIOUR 
 OF THE WHOLE MAN— BODY AND SOUL. 
 
 He sent his Word and healed them, and delivered 
 them from their destructions. — Ps. 107: 20. 
 
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
 with God, and the Word was God. . . . In him was 
 life, and the life was the light of men. . . . And the 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. — S. John 1 : 
 
 1, 4, 14- 
 
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy 
 diseases. — Ps. 103 : 3. 
 
 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop; but a 
 good word maketh it glad. — Prov. 12 : 25. 
 
 A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a 
 word spoken in due season, how good it is. — Ps. 15: 23. 
 
 The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
 they are life. — S. John 6: 63. 
 
 When the "earth was without form and void, and dark- 
 ness was upon the face of the deep, God said," and His 
 
48 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Word created the world and man. The things which 
 the Word created were "very good." When man speaks 
 "health" understanding^ and in His Name, the Word 
 creates health. So with "death," so with "life"— "each 
 yielding fruit after its kind." This is the law of the 
 Word. "It is written." 
 
 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom 
 the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
 soever I have said unto you. . . . And now I have 
 told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to 
 pass, ye might believe." — S. John 14 : 26, 29. 
 
 "Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show 
 John again those things which ye do hear and see: The 
 blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
 are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
 and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And 
 blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." — 
 S. Matt. 11: 4, 5, 6. 
 
 He sent to the imprisoned John this message of heal- 
 ing for the body and gospel for the soul as an evidence 
 of the presence among men of the only Christ. He is 
 sending this message to the bodily imprisoned Johns of 
 today. "It was by His works of healing, almost in the 
 forefront of His work, that our Lord taught us to esti- 
 mate the power of His Presence with us now. Our pres- 
 ent faith in our Lord is a true estimate of those powers 
 of His which are hidden from the view of the unbe- 
 liever." 
 
 Says Rev. G. P. Trevelyan: "There can be no doubt 
 that our Lord willed to mark His work amongst men 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 49 
 
 very strongly indeed with the character of healing. No 
 one can rise from the study of the gospels without the 
 idea that He willed to leave men with this impression of 
 His ministry. We feel, also, that the character mani- 
 fested in the gospels was meant to be the manifestation 
 of what He is to all time. It seems impossible to think 
 that He showed Himself then as the Healer of bodies, 
 but wishes us to think of Him exclusively as the Healer 
 of souls now. He says no word to make us think that 
 He willed to put off this character, when He should be 
 with us even unto the end of the world through the com- 
 ing of God, the Holy Ghost, in the church. 
 
 "If He had willed to do so, we can hardly think that 
 He would have sent His apostles out to heal. In the 
 forefront of His commission to them comes first the com- 
 mand to preach the good news that the kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand. Then comes, 'Heal the sick, raise the 
 dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils.' . . . That 
 our Lord willed His apostles after the coming of the 
 kingdom on the first Whitsunday to continue the practice 
 of healing, we learn from the frank assurance with which 
 they healed in the name of Christ. It seems the most nat- 
 ural thing in the world that the Name of Jesus through 
 faith in His Name should be the means of restoring to 
 perfect soundness the lame man healed by S. Peter and 
 S. John. The other works of healing in The Acts bear 
 the same mark of its being considered a natural result of 
 our Lord's work of love for man that His church should 
 minister the blessing of health to those capable of receiv- 
 ing it. . . . It did not apparently come into the mind 
 of the church for many centuries that the power to heal 
 would be withdrawn." 
 4 
 
50 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 This revival of healing is the dispensation of the Holy- 
 Ghost, of whom we hear so little preached. Our Lord 
 knew that many would be offended when reminded of 
 the necessity for its revival. It is singular that devout 
 church people seem to be the ones most offended. 
 
 "The church is constantly tempted," says Bishop John- 
 son, of California, "to rely upon secondary influence to 
 advance her interests. When she has felt the protecting 
 arm of the State shielding her from poverty and giving 
 her distinction in the world ; when she has been conscious 
 of the patronage of wealth and society, she has not felt 
 the same necessity for the development of spiritual forces 
 to give her standing as she did when they alone secured 
 her reverence and respect. 
 
 "And consequently a sort of spiritual atrophy has set- 
 tled down upon the lives of many Christian men, and 
 they have been surprised when they have been confronted 
 with facts which should be familiar because, by Christ's 
 pledge, they should be of common occurrence. 
 
 "So far from being amazed by the phenomena which 
 have turned attention to healing movements, it would 
 seem that the history of the Christian church should lead 
 us to expect them, and that we should rather be surprised 
 that in Christian society everywhere they were not the 
 usual thing and not the occasional incident. If what we 
 find upon almost every page of Scripture be true, and, 
 further, if the church in her prayer-book be delivering 
 to us a vital message, then the gospel of Jesus is a gospel 
 of Divine healing in the largest and fullest sense of that 
 term." 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 51 
 
 The wiles of the devil are befogging the minds of 
 many good people. The Law, the Psalms, and the 
 Prophets are replete with "thus saith the Lord," which 
 declares Him the Healer of the whole man. In the gen- 
 eral preaching and teaching the soul is brought forward 
 so prominently that the body is almost completely left 
 out. .We are reminded constantly of the seas and wilder- 
 ness of doubt and unbelief through which the world is 
 passing. Never did the Israelites need, more than we, 
 the promises of God while being tested, in body and soul, 
 as we are today, with puzzling diseases, unsettling creeds 
 and no creeds. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the 
 voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt give ear to His com- 
 mandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of 
 these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the 
 Egyptians : for I am the Lord that healeth thee." 
 
 When the people had turned more and more to the 
 gods of the world, and the darkness grew so dense that 
 they could not see God as the Healer, our Lord, the 
 Word, came in the flesh, and by His example brought the 
 promises to men's remembrance. He delivered men's 
 bodies from the sins of their souls. Now the Holy Ghost 
 is come, fulfilling His office of reminding us of the power, 
 purpose and presence of Christ. His own receiving Him 
 not, He has turned to the Gentiles. 
 
 Pulpit and press have turned a deaf ear to the message 
 of the revival of Divine healing. When doctors so gen- 
 erally agree that they are giving less and less drugs, that 
 it is the faith that heals,' and the power of mind is so 
 demonstrable, the children of light are facing the anom- 
 aly of getting instruction from the children of darkness. 
 
52 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Indeed is "God choosing the foolish things of the world 
 to confound the wise." 
 
 It is so old fashioned to preach hells and devils, that 
 those who hold firmly to the true teaching of the Scrip- 
 tures are looked upon as worse than freaks — they are 
 veritable stumbling-blocks to glory. The pendulum of 
 human thought, struck a ringing blow, swung to the 
 fierce extreme of trying to force men into the kingdom 
 of heaven by a paralyzing fear of the power of Satan. 
 The other extreme sweeps away completely all devils 
 and hells, and floats sinners on rose-leaved clouds of 
 physical health into a haven where all is good. 
 
 The first extreme contained truth ; the last wipes away 
 every vestige of our Lord's temptation, His teachings, 
 His purpose, and His warnings. He healed those who 
 were oppressed with the devil. Those who did not sin 
 directly and knowingly, suffered from the sins of the 
 world — "all one body we." Diseases were "rebuked." 
 Today we speak of the "battle" with disease, and dis- 
 eases "attacking." Nothing but the "wiles of the devil" 
 could have blinded us so long. S. Paul knew it was all 
 the devil's work; his own "thorn in the flesh" is unspar- 
 ingly recognized as a "messenger of Satan to buffet." 
 He explains it fully and gives the only protection in Eph. 
 6: 10-18. "For our struggle is not against enemies of 
 flesh and blood, but against the powers of evil, against 
 those who hold sway in the darkness around us, and 
 against the spirits of wickedness on high" (Twentieth 
 Century Version) . 
 
 There is a healthful and helpful view which we can 
 take of devils and hells. Our Lord taught that we were 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 53 
 
 to meet the temptations of evil, not with fear, but in His 
 strength, and the "power of His might." We see hells 
 of every grade all about us, and the general teaching, in 
 which is truth, that leaving the body behind does not 
 leave the sin behind, perpetuates these hells. It is pri- 
 marily a state of mind ; it is also a locality, as much as 
 our dwelling here is a locality. 
 
 We do not get rid of the devil by changing his name; 
 under any name he is the same old deceiver, "walking 
 about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." 
 Do we believe this warning of S. Peter? Do we believe 
 him when he said of our Lord (while His body lay in 
 the tomb), "By which (the Spirit) He went and preached 
 unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were diso- 
 bedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in 
 the days of Noah." — I Pet. 3 : 19, 20. 
 
 "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is 
 none other name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby we must be saved." We meet evil, not with 
 namby-pamby sentimentalism which calls everything 
 good, but with new understanding and power, knowing 
 that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of 
 power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 
 
 That old hymn, which seems to disgust the squeamish 
 who cannot stand Satan, is fraught with truth — "There 
 is a Fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's 
 veins." That healing Fountain is the "virtue" that went 
 forth from our Lord, and healed the body of the long- 
 suffering woman. The steps she took, we must take. 
 She first heard, then followed, then touched. Today we 
 half hear, half follow, and but rarely touch: "As many 
 
54 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 as touched were made perfectly whole." We let the 
 crowds, the multitude, the angry looks dismay us. We 
 let come between us and our Lord the general, blind 
 teaching that Christ's direct healing touch was for sin- 
 ners of the past, and to show His Divinity: that disease 
 in the flesh is suffering with Him. Our Lord had no 
 diseases ; He took them away and destroyed them. The 
 Via Dolorosa is the anguish of the soul for the sins of 
 the world and the temporary triumph of Satan. This 
 is the only suffering the true Christian should endure, 
 and he is surely less able to endure these things in a dis- 
 eased body than in a strong, well one. 
 
 "There are in our churches myriads of unstable Chris- 
 tians, who speak lightly of Satan, call him by jocular 
 titles, and laugh at the possibility of his relation to them ; 
 there are numbers of well-meaning believers who say, 
 T do not know anything about the devil, and I do not 
 want to.' The while the organized, systematized, com- 
 pacted and discipline^ forces of Satan are pressing 
 through the 'gates of hell' to instigate to crime, to plague 
 with disease, to blind with deceptions, and to rob the 
 saints of God of their heritage by perverting the evident 
 truth of the Word. 
 
 "Let us be ever responsive to the Spirit's promptings 
 to see in the perplexing and trying experiences of daily 
 life the personal touch of our enemy and His ; and let us 
 be qualified with the resistance that will always cause us 
 to triumph in our Redeemer and Saviour. This unques- 
 tioning recognition of Satan as the source and operation 
 of disease leads us away from the inherited and culti- 
 vated way we have of trying to find some local reason 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 55 
 
 for our infirmities or attacks." From the manger to the 
 cross it was a struggle with the "prince of this world." 
 "This is your hour and the power of darkness," he said 
 in Gethsemane. 
 
 There is much that is taught in the name of Christian- 
 ity which must be revised. It must grieve our Lord to 
 hear His struggling followers, blinded by Satan, teaching 
 that sickness and pain, used by us with patience and love 
 to God and meek submission to His will, will prove to be 
 angels of mercy in disguise, and that only those who 
 suffer thus are made strong. If so, why try to annul 
 God's will by sending for the doctor? Why not enter- 
 tain these angels of mercy a little longer? Satan flour- 
 ishes on these expressions. 
 
 Every act and statement of our Lord justifies us in 
 knowing that it is His will for man to have a healthy 
 body. He healed Peter's wife's mother that she might 
 get up and minister unto them. He wants us for use, 
 not disuse. It was, "Arise and eat," "Go," "Take up thy 
 bed and walk." They were to act — make themselves 
 useful in the world. Nothing delights Satan more than 
 to see a lot of good, bright Christians, who could be a 
 power for Christ, disabled and bed-ridden. 
 
 Jesus healed "all manner of sickness and disease." 
 We have no hint in His teachings that a single case was 
 left unhealed, or that the vilest sinner was told to suffer 
 a little longer, that he might be stronger. The Evil One 
 has planted this seed in the Lord's vineyard, for he knows 
 how God's will on earth, as in heaven, is being hindered 
 and delayed by the sickness and death of good people 
 whom he has blinded. 
 
56 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Our faith is much more vital when it conquers sick- 
 ness than when it merely helps us to bear it. We are to 
 bear only until we conquer. If our Lord were walking 
 in the flesh with us today, what Christian would stop to 
 ask if it were His will he be healed? He would believe, 
 "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out," 
 body or soul. 
 
 A noted archdeacon declared, "We are on the eve of a 
 judgment. Jesus is soon to come." We hasten His 
 coming by teaching life; if we hold on to life it may be 
 that we shall abide until His coming, and the body, 
 "transformed (transfigured, literally) by the renewing 
 of the mind," shall be "changed in the twinkling of an 
 eye," and never see corruption. What is corruption? 
 The last stage of sin — the last blow of Satan. Is the 
 body God's handiwork? Think you He wants it marred 
 by sickness and blotted out by corruption? A thousand 
 times, no ! 
 
 The grave is not fully and truly robbed of its victory 
 so long as the body, which God made, and is the "temple 
 of the Holy Ghost," sees corruption. "I will not suffer 
 my Holy One to see corruption." This is taken to be 
 said of our Lord. What life have we but His? If His 
 life preserved His body from corruption, that same Life 
 should preserve every body in which it is allowed to flow 
 as He wills. Mr. Miiller declared that, when he was 
 supposed to be dying, a new influx of life came into his 
 body, and he grew strong and well when he thought of 
 the coming of the Lord of Life. 
 
 Religious writers admit that Christ's healing had a 
 spiritual meaning; that it was part of the great redemp- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 57 
 
 tive plan, and was to beget and confirm faith in Himself 
 as the Divine Messiah. Has the redemptive work ceased, 
 or our Lord's plan changed? Is the world saved? If 
 not, then the direct contact of our Lord — "virtue" going 
 forth from Him to the bodies of men — is necessary now 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 There is need today to beget and confirm faith in Him- 
 self as the Divine Messiah, when we see the intellect 
 deified ; grand old churches voting to relegate to the rear, 
 as a "historical relic," the Divinity of our Lord, and good 
 people, hungering for bodily healing, leaving the 
 churches for weak, wild "isms," cults, and schisms, that 
 are taking away our Lord Jesus Christ and giving in 
 His place an abstract principle called Christ, divorced 
 from Jesus. As we cannot separate body and soul with 
 impunity, neither can we separate Jesus from Christ and 
 still be Christians. 
 
 The nearness and tenderness of God as a Father can- 
 not be satisfactorily realized in an abstract principle. A 
 noted divine declares : "This conception of God does not 
 give the mind anything in which the thought can termi- 
 nate, for thoughts must terminate in something, or they 
 are dissipated in the expanse of nature. . . . The 
 saving idea of God is, that He is a man" ("No man com- 
 eth unto the Father but by Me" — the Divine Humanity, 
 Jesus Christ in the flesh). . . . "To think of God 
 as a spirit, or principle, without letting that thought 
 terminate in person, is to have in reality no idea of God." 
 
 It is a psychological moment for the church, but the 
 situation can be met only on the plane of healing. It is 
 not true to say that the healing is being done by preach- 
 
58 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 ing and materia medica. Jails, insane asylums, hos- 
 pitals, and sanitariums are filling the land and inade- 
 quate to the demand. Preaching to the soul only, pills, 
 pellets and serums are not sufficient. The "virtue" from 
 our Lord, the blood of the Lamb that cleanses body and 
 soul from all unrighteousness, is the only salvation. 
 
 An English clergyman writes: "It is sad that this 
 noble thing, Salvation, should have been so narrowed 
 amongst Christians as to mean still for many the mere 
 plucking of the soul from some future torment. That 
 degradation of the word shows how the thought of in- 
 ward wholeness has been lost. 
 
 "Salvation means the passing of the entire man into 
 the life of God, so that every part of his being is brought 
 into harmony with the divine laws ; and for the saved 
 the Eternal Life is not only a future reward — it is some- 
 thing that has already begun: 'He that hath the Son 
 hath life' — something that is proved to have begun al- 
 ready by the helpfulness and charity of those who are 
 living therein, for 'We know that we have passed out of 
 death into life, because we love the brethren.' 
 
 "We may give both kinds of health one name, uniting 
 them in the term Salvation. In the original language 
 of the New Testament 'to save' is used of the healing 
 either of the body or of the spirit ; ... of the body, 
 the case of the woman with the issue, 'Thy faith hath 
 saved thee ; go in peace' ; of the spirit, the case of the 
 woman who was a sinner, 'Thy faith hath saved thee/ 
 The same word is used in both cases. . . . Christ 
 came to win a double victory over sin and death; He 
 brought new life both to spirit and body. The two 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 59 
 
 kinds of salvation were but two sides of one work. . . . 
 The impotent man was healed at the gate Beautiful by 
 the power of the Christ, because 'in none other is there 
 salvation — wherein we must be saved;' and S. James 
 says the 'prayer of faith shall save him that is sick.' 
 
 "Both sin and disease are a breach of God's laws, so 
 that sin may be called the 'disease' of the soul, and 'sick- 
 ness' the sin of the body. ... It would be a small 
 thing if grace could do no more for man than surgery. 
 When a man is healed by faith of a disease which natural 
 means have failed to move, we are in the presence of a 
 force more important for humanity than the. most won- 
 derful skill of the physician. We have a sign of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 "We are shown that disease is but the outward mani- 
 festation of some inward weakness and failure, so that 
 it is possible for the physical results of that weakness to 
 be removed by an inward and spiritual restoration. . . . 
 The crowning lesson of the evangelical signs is that God 
 is the Giver of health, that the spreading of the Gospel 
 is the spreading of health." Only this teaching will set 
 forth a full and rounded view of the truth. 
 
 A good man writes : "There is death, and sin and 
 much pain of both body and mind in the world. Why 
 they are here is not for me to say, but I know that with 
 death inevitable I have no warrant to pray that all sick- 
 ness shall be healed." If, in a new light, this follower 
 of Christ will read Deuteronomy xxviii, the Lord will 
 tell him why sickness, pain and death are here. It is the 
 Word of the Lord that speaks, not of any man. The 
 whole of the Old Testament proclaims the source of 
 
60 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 these discords, and from Sinai was thundered the salva- 
 tion from them. 
 
 Unless one lets Satan blind him, the "wayfaring man, 
 though a fool, cannot err" in the only and proper inter- 
 pretation, and why we are to fight these evils — yes, even 
 death itself. God is the "author of peace and lover of 
 concord," and though we should have "patience under 
 suffering," yet we should also have a "happy issue out 
 of all afflictions." It is true that death does come upon 
 us, even the death that brings corruption to the body, but 
 it is because we let it. The whole (holy ones) do not 
 see corruption. We let it because of our ignorance, be- 
 cause of the weak teachings on this subject. 
 
 God takes us — rather, the "everlasting arms" catch 
 us — as we drop through the trap-door of Satan. Death 
 inevitable? Yes, to those who have ears to hear and 
 will not hear. "For He must reign till He hath put all 
 enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be 
 destroyed is death." Are we reigning (ruling) with 
 Him, and helping Him to destroy this "enemy" (not a 
 friend) when we declare that "death is inevitable"? 
 Was Hosea inspired when he wrote, "I will ransom thee 
 from the power (hand — Whose hand?) of the grave; I 
 will redeem thee from death: O death, I will be thy 
 plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction" ? 
 
 Are these things to be blotted out in heaven, where 
 they do not occur, or on earth, where they do occur? The 
 man with the vision of Christ asked what provision He 
 had made for the redemption of the world. He replied 
 that it was to be through human instrumentality. 
 
 "But suppose men fail?" 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 61 
 
 "I have made no other provision." 
 
 Are we not failing Him (Life) when, contrary to His 
 commands and teachings, we encourage people to give 
 submissively their bodies to sickness and death because 
 they are inevitable? 
 
 A good woman who had suffered physical agony for 
 forty years, weary of bearing it, and being sorely needed 
 in the home which was provided by a daughter's daily 
 labors in a store, went to a friend who believed in the 
 healing "virtue" of our Lord. She said that for forty 
 years she had prayed to God to help her to bear it. The 
 friend said : "Do you not think that you have prayed that 
 one prayer long enough? Evidently He has answered 
 it, and it should convince you that He will answer a bet- 
 ter one. So long as you pray to bear, you will bear. 
 Now pray that, through His power, you may conquer." 
 It was a revelation to her. She went forth to conquer. 
 
 A clergyman to whom this was related meekly in- 
 quired: "Do you think it was kind and right to tell her 
 that"? 
 
 We have such a false idea of our Lord's humility — 
 "Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world" — con- 
 quered, not submitted to. Some one truly says, "So 
 prone are mortals to their own damnation, it seems as 
 though a devil's use were gone." 
 
 If we teach the full truth, we must emphasize and in- 
 sist upon it that, "when God tabernacles with men," and 
 He is allowed to "dwell with them, there shall be no more 
 pain, no more death." 
 
 Some one says, "It is going too far to say we should 
 not die." The reply is, "It is but bringing to your re- 
 
62 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 membrance the words and promises of God. There must 
 come a time on this earth when death shall cease." The 
 wages of sin is death: if it is right to stop sinning (and 
 all preach that), it is right to stop dying; one lector 
 admitted that we should stop dying. 
 
 "Die daily;" "transform (transfigure) the body by re- 
 newing the mind, and thus prove the will of God;" be 
 ready to have the "body changed in the twinkling of an 
 eye." It is a greater presumption to say that the time is 
 not now, than to say we should live, and not die. Who 
 can say that we might not see the King coming in His 
 glory if every Christian united in looking for and de- 
 claring life? In union there is success, as well as 
 strength. 
 
 Although Joshua had set his face and feet towards 
 Gerizim, life, in the flesh he never reached the top ; he 
 was dragged down by his brethren whose faces and feet 
 were turned to Ebal, death. How long shall those who 
 see the truth be hindered in "proving the perfect will of 
 God" by scoffing Christians? A woman like Dorcas, 
 full of good works, says that those who make her steps 
 drag and her soul weary are her own brethren in the 
 church. "We know that we have passed from death 
 unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth 
 not his brother abideth in death." We talk death, be- 
 cause we do not talk love. "Death and life are in the 
 power of the tongue." — Prov. 18: 21. "For by thy 
 words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou 
 shalt be condemned." 
 
 The command and legacy of our Lord was to preach 
 to the soul, heal the sick bodies, and raise the dead bodies. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 63 
 
 With the Bible open before us, Christians are supposed 
 to believe that sick bodies were healed, and dead bodies 
 were raised. Shut the Bible and talk of these things, 
 and the cry will be "sick in sin," "dead in sin." Did our 
 Lord raise Lazarus that way? Did He dispense to Mar- 
 tha and Mary the consolation of some other place and 
 time? Or did He restore to them their beloved brother, 
 strong and well in the flesh? Is church history true that 
 tells us of the raising of the dead from the grave for six 
 centuries, and that it stopped only when Christians ceased 
 loving their brethren? 
 
 O for a recrudescence of our faith that will meet the 
 needs of the whole man ! "In Him we live, and move, 
 and have our being." The Trinity of man — body, soul 
 and spirit — be-ing, acting; this is harmonious action, this 
 is life. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Thy zvill be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 
 
 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray and 
 cry aloud; and He shall hear my voice. — Ps. 55 : 17. 
 
 And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance 
 was altered, and His raiment was white and glister- 
 ing. — S. Luke 9 : 29. 
 
 And the very Son of peace sanctify you wholly; and I 
 pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be pre- 
 served blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. — I Thess. 5 : 23. 
 
64 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any sick 
 among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and 
 let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the 
 name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the 
 sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. . . . Confess 
 your faults one to another, and pray one for another, 
 that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of 
 a righteous man availeth much. — S. James 5 : 13, 14, 
 15, 16. 
 
 In the present deification of the intellect there are 
 many who are lowering the standard of prayer to the 
 weak level of mere denials and affirmations. Any cheer- 
 ful, hopeful state of mind, any kind thought for one's 
 own or another's good (good as denned by the individual 
 in his varying development), these are called prayer. 
 "Holding a good thought" for one, the expression so 
 often used, is placed in the category of prayer. These 
 things have a value, but they are only steps to prayer. 
 They are mental attitudes; they rarely touch or bring 
 forth the deep and satisfactory resources of the soul. 
 They are concerned with the circumference of man's 
 being, and alone do not reach and awaken his center. 
 
 Compared with the essence and true meaning of prayer 
 as our Lord taught, and practiced it in Gethsemane and 
 on Olivet, these things are a snare. They feed the mind 
 on milk and sweetmeats, and cheat the soul of its true 
 growth which it can get in no other way than on bended 
 knees and in supplicating cries. 
 
 Prophets and seers, saints and shining ones, cherubim 
 and seraphim, fall down, worship and cry out. Fool- 
 ish man, in his intellectual pride and vaunted growth, 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 65 
 
 thinks he may do less. Every one will have his Geth- 
 semane and Olivet, will stand alone with his God, and 
 mere denials of discord and affirmations of harmony 
 will then be found to have been a poor, weak, slender 
 preparation and substitute for prayer in this fiery ordeal 
 of the soul. 
 
 We frequently come across derisive criticisms of the 
 expression, "miserable sinners," used in the litany of the 
 church. These youthful critics tell you that such ex- 
 pressions hinder the spiritual growth of the worshiper. 
 They overlook the preponderance of joy, praise and true 
 prayer in the rest of the service, and they forget the two 
 men in the Bible — one of whom boasted he was not as 
 other men, calling themselves sinners; the other beat 
 upon his breast, remembered his failings and weaknesses, 
 and cried out for mercy for his sins. It was of the latter 
 that our Lord said, "he went down justified." 
 
 "For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, 
 and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." "If we 
 say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
 truth is not in us." Self-deception is not growth. In 
 our enthusiasm and zeal to get knowledge and grow, we 
 do not have to forget and let go the commands and prac- 
 tices of our Lord. Whoever does this is taking his feet 
 from the Rock and building on the sand. He will find 
 himself swept out at sea when the torrents necessary 
 for the true development of the soul come sweeping 
 down upon him. 
 
 Now that we have learned that the powers of the mind 
 and the resources of the soul are at our command, it is 
 time to rid ourselves of the idea that life is a flowery bed 
 5 
 
66 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 of ease, that there is a rose-strewn path to glory, and 
 that we can rest in the arms of the Absolute, while sin, 
 suffering, ignorance and darkness are flourishing around 
 us. There is a "rest that remaineth," but we enter it 
 after toils and battles. 
 
 The Lord's Prayer covers every need, human and 
 divine. The first part deals with praise to God; the sec- 
 ond with man's needs and — his sins. "Forgive us our 
 sins, as we forgive sinners." The answer hinges on the 
 humble acknowledgment of our sins, and the willingness 
 and intention to forgive sinners. So long as there is a 
 soul to be saved, just so long will we need supplicating 
 prayers. 
 
 "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for 
 we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but 
 the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groan- 
 ings that cannot be uttered." These groanings are for 
 the sins of sinners. Who can read that awe- full prayer 
 of our ascending Lord in S. John 17, and cheat himself 
 into thinking that anything less than this full outpour- 
 ing of being to a "Power not himself" can ever satisfy 
 the needs and hunger of the developing soul. 
 
 Among many mental practitioners "treatments," as 
 they express their method, take the place of prayer. So 
 far have they wandered from true prayer, that the domi- 
 nant note in these "treatments" is "my will be done, not 
 Thine." Nothing but excesses of every kind can follow 
 in the wake of such mental states. 
 
 A woman of irascible temper left her home for an in- 
 definite visit. In a short time she wrote that she would 
 return in a few days. Visiting in the home was a woman 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 6j 
 
 who was taking her first lessons in "mental treatment." 
 To preserve her own comfort she set to work to "treat" 
 the old lady that she might not return. She declared 
 her inability to return, and that she was in the best place 
 for her. The old lady sent for her winter coat and pro- 
 longed her stay. The student told her success (?) with 
 gusto. Instead of being willing to use her knowledge 
 to help the old lady into a sweeter temper, she set to work 
 for her own selfish ease. 
 
 Dean Marquis, of Detroit, tells of a congregation which 
 prayed that a visiting evangelist might be kept a night 
 longer amongst them, despite the fact that he was en- 
 gaged elsewhere and anxious to go. A storm arose, the 
 train was delayed, and they had one more intellectual 
 feast. Their prayer had been answered. The next 
 day's news informed them that hundreds of homes, 
 lives, and much valuable property had been destroyed. 
 In an article, the Dean asked them if they wished to take 
 upon themselves the responsibility of the disaster. 
 
 The extreme of this was touched upon by the Dean in 
 a talk to the Emmanuel Movement Class in Boston. In 
 his old way of talking to people distressed in mind or 
 body, he used a common nostrum for all — "it was God's 
 will," and so on. It would no longer do. He wanted 
 something vital in his church, so he began with the study 
 of the sphere and nature of prayer. He declared vehe- 
 mently that there is a kind of prayer that is damning — a 
 relinquishing, deadening prayer that threw everything 
 into God's lap, rested on the bosom of Jesus, and left the 
 suppliant an inert, inactive automaton. 
 
68 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 The king in Hamlet cried, "My words fly up, my 
 thoughts remain below; words without thoughts never 
 to heaven go." He said prayers, but did not pray. 
 S. Paul tells us how — "Strive in prayers to God for me. 
 I strive for you." A woman of India, who had become 
 a Christian, prayed for a girl who had left her home ; she 
 walked the roof all night, praying unceasingly. The girl 
 returned the next day. She strove in prayer for her 
 weaker sister. 
 
 We do not change God's plan by this striving, nor do 
 we need to wrest from Him some coveted boon. We are 
 co-workers with Him. By ignorance and sin we have 
 dissolved the partnership; we have strayed from His 
 touch, and the effort in earnest prayer is to regain our 
 position by His side. A woman who had heard a lec- 
 turer declare that God's will would be done, came away 
 feeling that a blow had been struck at prayer. Why 
 should she pray? Why not just float along and let God 
 do His will? Working with God, the human instru- 
 mentality in the redemption of the world, had never oc- 
 curred to her. 
 
 The spirit of man wishes His will to be done, but the 
 mind of man is divided between God and mammon. It 
 is through the mind that man is a free agent, and can 
 choose whom or what he will serve. The spirit is gently 
 leading man to choose that quickening communion with 
 God which is gained only in hours of prayer. Prayer 
 begets and confirms that faith which constructs the 
 bridge over which the gifts and power of God are con- 
 veyed. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 69 
 
 There is nothing that will weaken and demolish this 
 structure more than to doubt God's willingness to grant 
 a request. This is one of the secrets of the failure to 
 heal the body, and yet if there is one thing of which we 
 should be absolutely sure, without a scintilla of doubt, 
 it is that God wants his co-workers with healthy, vigor- 
 ous bodies. It is so in human partnerships; how much 
 more so is it in the Divine relationship. 
 
 There is a law, a rationale of prayer, that must be 
 struck and maintained. The sinner stumbles sometimes 
 upon this law, and gets the result, while the good man, 
 with a wrong sense of humility, misses it. Our Lord 
 did not lessen or withdraw his compassionate mercy as 
 He went from town to town, yet He declares that He 
 could not do many mighty works in some towns because 
 of their unbelief. Those people believed something, but 
 not the right thing in the right way. 
 
 A noted clergyman says : "I would not and do not 
 pray to be relieved of pain and sickness ; yet I pray 
 for health and strength every day, and often go to the 
 sick room to pray for their recovery." With a mind 
 divided against itself, as seen in this acknowledgment, it 
 is not strange that the people are not healed, and the 
 healing gifts of our Lord are neglected and untaught. 
 
 What is praying for recovery but the relief of pain 
 and sickness? How much more comfortable is the boon 
 of health and strength than that of healing. God as our 
 Health is infinitely more, greater and nearer than God 
 as our Healer. Assured of health and strength is to be 
 totally and forever free from pain and sickness. Does 
 he ask health and strength, doubting God's willingness 
 
jo The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 to bestow them? If he does not doubt the greater gift, 
 why doubt the lesser? Thus does Satan deceive the 
 very elect. Thus is built the strongest barrier against 
 the revival of the gifts of healing left by our Lord to His 
 Church. 
 
 "Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree 
 on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall 
 be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For 
 where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
 there am I in the midst of them." Jesus knew the need 
 of one mind to back and strengthen another. He knew 
 that Satan would interpose with diagnoses of death and 
 incurableness, and the need of impure and weakening 
 disease to make pure and strong. Even He wanted this 
 companionship in His hour of trial. His disciples were 
 to watch and pray against the tempter. 
 
 "Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; 
 knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 
 
 "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask 
 bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, 
 will he give him a serpent ? If ye then, being evil, know 
 how to give good gifts unto your children, how much 
 more shall your Father which is in heaven give good 
 things to them that ask him? 
 
 "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, 
 believing, ye shall receive. 
 
 "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him 
 that believeth. 
 
 "What things soever ye desire, when, ye pray, believe 
 that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. yi 
 
 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that (not some- 
 thing else) will I do, that the Father may be glorified in 
 the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will 
 do it. 
 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask 
 the Father in my name, he will give it you. 
 
 "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name ; ask and 
 ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 
 
 "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he 
 that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the 
 wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he 
 shall receive anything of the Lord." 
 
 Unless these promises are a mockery, it is our duty 
 to lay hold upon them. The minds of Christians are 
 sadly and frightfully befogged as to what is God's will, 
 and what we should ask for. Our Lord made these 
 promises to sinners. "If ye then, being evil, know how 
 to give good gifts unto your children, how much more 
 shall your Father give good things to them that ask 
 him?" It is often said that if some things were given 
 us, we would not use them aright, owing to our evil. 
 Our Lord did not say this. He is willing to give all 
 good gifts, and to stand by and help us to use them for 
 His glory. Are the rich, helpful, and beautiful things of 
 the world made only for the wicked? Shall only the 
 "wicked flourish like a green bay tree"? 
 
 Solomon's deflection is often held up as a paralyzing 
 warning against asking for comforts of body as well as 
 of soul, instead of a warning against using them wrongly. 
 A woman who would not degrade ( ?) the use of prayer 
 by asking for a pair of shoes for her bare feet, looked 
 
"J2 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 up to God as her supply, but took care to hold the shoes 
 in the mental background. The Father wants us to be 
 frank and definite. Mr. George Miiller is the best known 
 example of asking God definitely for the smallest needs, 
 and He never failed him. 
 
 "Believers in the limitless power and measureless love 
 of the Lord Jesus are catching a new vision of the will 
 of God. 
 
 "How enslaved to dark thought of His will have the 
 children of the Most High been. The will of God has 
 been a deep shadow on their pathway, obscuring the light 
 of present blessing with its possible decrees of sorrow. 
 It has been a skeleton in their closets, which they have 
 prayed to stay behind closed doors. It has been a pres- 
 ence from whose cold embrace they have pleaded to be 
 released. 
 
 "Their dread of His will has impelled them to school 
 themselves to be ready for its visitation as for the pesti- 
 lence that sweeps through the land. The will of God is 
 associated with sick rooms, poverty, loss, bereavement, 
 funerals, the open grave. The will of God, to such, is 
 always dressed in black. And this conception of His 
 will gives us sickly Christians, weak faith, empty joy, 
 puny conquests." 
 
 A young woman in Sunday School shuddered when 
 the will of God was mentioned, and cried, "I am afraid 
 to have His will done." 
 
 Why do we not have more preaching and teaching 
 about the Holy Ghost? That we might increase our 
 faith and thus become perfect even as our Father is per- 
 fect, God the Son withdrew from the flesh, but promised 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 73 
 
 His Holy Spirit to men for health, happiness and guid- 
 ance. Surely He did not mean that the Son should blot 
 out the Holy Ghost. Why do we not open our inner 
 ear to the "still, small voice" ? It is so possible for every 
 follower of Jesus Christ to have a daily audience with 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The land is flooded with human conventions and con- 
 ferences. We are overwhelmed with human devices for 
 man's relief from "plague, pestilence and famine." When 
 shall we convene to listen to the conference of the Holy 
 Spirit? It is in prayer that we give ourselves to Him, 
 and He to us. We renew the body by renewing the 
 mind; this renewing the mind is projecting its activity 
 into a higher realm, and the law of the body is that it 
 follows the mind. 
 
 It is not unnatural, nor forcing the faculties into un- 
 healthy channels. It is a transfiguration (the literal 
 meaning of "renewing") here and now. It is changing 
 the earthy mind into the "mind which was in Christ." 
 It purifies and is a resurrection of the body. "As He 
 prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, and 
 His raiment was white and glistering." The effect of 
 prayer extended even to the garments. May not this be 
 the meaning of S. Paul's act of sending aprons and hand- 
 kerchiefs to heal the sick? 
 
 Giving the whole man to God in prayer and receiving 
 His spirit in return does not require great knowledge 
 and learning. It is true worship which is simple. It is 
 more than a merely intellectual belief. It is having a 
 passion for God, and the highest things of God. The 
 Psalms breathe a personal relation to and possession of 
 
74 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Him. The old Hebrews did not need death to unite 
 them with God ; they had Him on earth, and that posses- 
 sion was heaven and life; so much so that some writers 
 thought that they did not believe in a future life. 
 
 They sang what Jesus taught, and taught in the pres- 
 ent tense: "Now are we passed from death unto life." 
 "Now is salvation." "Be perfect, now." Our minds 
 are dulled and spirits weighed down with the future 
 tense. With no sense of shame we read, "Whom have 
 I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that 
 I desire beside thee," and there follows no desire to culti- 
 vate a passion for God. 
 
 "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see 
 death; and was not found, because God had translated 
 him ; for before his translation he had this testimony, 
 that he pleased God." He walked and talked with God, 
 and in this close touch the body was purified unto trans- 
 lation. Then there is a law for the transfiguration of 
 our mortal bodies, and they do not have to enter God's 
 presence through disease and decay. Why do we not 
 teach and emphasize this? 
 
 A clergyman sermonized on Enoch's life and trans- 
 lation. He declared that all Christians should please 
 God as Enoch did. To do this Enoch had to do and talk 
 differently from others about him. After the sermon 
 he was asked if it were possible for a Christian to walk 
 with God as did Enoch. 
 
 "O, yes." 
 
 "Then it is possible for such a Christian to be trans- 
 lated today?" 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 75 
 
 He hesitated and shook his head. He was asked why 
 so many ministers either turned down or shunned one 
 in the church if he really tried to do as he had just 
 preached. In the most lifeless and uninterested tone, 
 he slowly said that he supposed that they thought such 
 people cranks, and did not want to encourage those who 
 made themselves so different from others, as they must 
 do to let others know that they had something. 
 
 "Quench not the Spirit." Who stops to realize the 
 meaning of this injunction? 
 
 A lecturer's text was, "Depart from me, for I am a 
 sinful man." It was S. Peter's cry, when at our Lord's 
 bidding he cast the net and received it full, despite the 
 fact that Peter was a "sinful man." It was stated that 
 we are no better today than Peter was, and that he 
 needed the miracle to help him to see his sinfulness ; 
 that there must come a time when sin must stop. On 
 being asked if sin must stop, then must not death stop? 
 the speaker hesitated, and expressed his thought that it 
 was the soul that sinned and died. When it was made 
 clear that the body is but the channel of sin, and mani- 
 fests the state of the soul, he unequivocably said, "Yes, 
 death must stop." 
 
 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for 
 he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that 
 he is (not will be) a rewarder of them that diligently 
 seek him." The Bible urges us on by rewards. The 
 general teaching is full of injunctions to do good, but 
 O, the mistiness in claiming the reward here and now. 
 
 It is so much like the bundle of hay on the shaft that 
 urged the weary, struggling team to greater effort — the 
 hay always remained at the end of the shaft. 
 
j6 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Only in ceaseless and devout prayer is fed and con- 
 firmed that faith which "believeth all things" for body 
 and soul. But prayer in work, prayer on the street can 
 never take the place of that communion in the closet, 
 which shuts out the world, and brings us into that vital 
 touch of the Holy Spirit, whereby the Divine life rules 
 body and soul. 
 
 "There is a day coming when in our future and glori- 
 fied life, these bodies shall be able to pass from world to 
 world as quickly as thought can pass now; and when 
 that day comes, it will simply be a higher plane of living 
 and being. But we are constantly entering upon the 
 higher even here, and anticipating and overlapping it. 
 All that is necessary, therefore, is that we rise to the 
 higher life, and we shall find its laws lifting us above 
 the restraints of the lower. The real secret of divine 
 healing is to reach out to the divine life and become 
 united to the Living One. Then His supernatural life 
 will fill not only our spiritual, but our physical nature, so 
 that we shall find that the law of life in Christ Jesus 
 hath made us free from the law of sin and death." 
 
 "And when they were come up out of the water, the 
 Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch 
 saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. 
 But Philip was found at Azotus." The law of the higher 
 life lifted Philip's body above the restraints of the lower, 
 which was not violated, but superseded. It was not 
 strange to Philip; he had probably had many such ex- 
 periences. S. Paul tells us of his being "caught up to 
 the third heaven. How that he was caught up into para- 
 dise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not law- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. JJ 
 
 ful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory." 
 His faith and energy were increased by these experiences, 
 which may be that of every truly believing Christian. 
 There is a timidity about these things which is repre- 
 hensible. 
 
 "Prayer is not our compelling God's reluctance, but 
 laying hold of God's willingness." The "laying hold" 
 is our share in the results. "Real prayer is to the soul 
 like breathing to the body. It is the conscious drawing 
 in of soul energy from its source, increasing the quantity 
 and improving the quality of our entire conscious being." 
 The cells, tissues and organs are revived and invigorated 
 with the water of life more abundant. "Prayer is an 
 instrumentality for bringing the mind into an effective 
 state of conviction, concentration and receptivity to the 
 divine influx that lifts the body above pain, and frees the 
 flesh of dis-ease. There is a subtle interaction between 
 the body and the soul." The soul's truest and most 
 abiding uplift takes place in prayer. The soul's uplift 
 is the body's, through mind. "Transform your body by 
 the renewing of the mind," and this is done in devout, 
 supplicatory prayer. Supplication is the central idea in 
 all the words translated "prayer." 
 
 An English writer tells of a lady whose illness "defied 
 the doctor's best efforts. Do what he would, this patient 
 got no better, till one day a very powerful prayer was 
 made at her bedside, when she exclaimed, 'I am better !' 
 and astonished all by dressing and coming down to the 
 drawing-room, and mixing with other members of the 
 family. Her friends considered that a 'miracle of 
 prayer' had been wrought." "Miracles are not contrary 
 
 / 
 
78 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 to nature ; they are only contrary to what we know about 
 nature." 
 
 "Healing has long been regarded as a miracle, and 
 because so considered many have felt it to be beyond a 
 general experience. But those who are taught of God 
 are persuading us that this life of divine manifestation 
 in the body of the believer is a normal order. We simply 
 take our stand on higher ground than the natural posi- 
 tion. We believe that our God is life, and as our need 
 of life is greater than the supply which we have in na- 
 ture, we may take of His life because He has bidden 
 us to." 
 
 The universe is fashioned with reference to prayer, 
 and in no direction are we blocked by the fixedness of 
 nature's course. Water and air obeyed, "Peace, be 
 still !" Gravitation gave way to the higher law of levita- 
 tion when Peter's soul went forth and talked with his 
 Lord — he and his body walked upon the waves. When 
 he allowed the howling winds to drown his Lord's voice, 
 his body sank under the law of gravitation. 
 
 However beautiful any ritual may be, it can never do 
 for us what is done in secret talks and daily personal 
 audience with the Holy Ghost. "Man shall not live by 
 bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of 
 the mouth of God." It is not merely a beautiful utter- 
 ance, but an eternal, unchanging law that the Psalmist 
 enunciates when he tells us to pray to and praise God 
 early in the morning and in the night season. Our Lord 
 went forth in the early hours and prayed for spiritual 
 food. In the evening He renewed the supply, and built 
 up the waste places in mind and body which the day's 
 labor had wrought. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 79 
 
 We are no better than the lower animals, if we go 
 through this world subsisting alone on animal foods. 
 The soul will never cease its cry for its own nourish- 
 ment — this is its law, to be about its Father's business ; 
 this cry, neglected and unsatisfied, is wrecking men, 
 women and children, and is bringing about "every sick- 
 ness and every plague which is not written in the book 
 of this law." — Deuteronomy xxviii: 61. The causes of 
 disease will forever elude until the whole man is fed. 
 
 There is no "cannot" in the Christian's vocabulary; 
 everything is implied in the expression, "If we will." 
 The mad rush for the things of the outward senses de- 
 mands strenuous and persistent effort to drill children 
 into the reality and nearness of the spiritual world. The 
 Lord "perceived" the "virtue" that went forth and en- 
 tered the bodies of sufferers. With His mind we can 
 make the things of spirit as real to us as the objects of 
 sense. O, for a revival of the Hebrews' belief in the 
 immanence of God which was a protective power to close 
 the mouth of lions. "And no manner of hurt was found 
 upon Daniel, because he believed in God." The warmth 
 of His love can be such a reality, here and now, as to 
 supersede the heat of fire and flames, as did the presence 
 of that fourth and Holy One in the fiery furnace. 
 
 A woman picked up a hot pan, which burnt the entire 
 inside of the hand. She had only a short time left to 
 finish her baking; something must be done at once, for 
 the pain was severe and increasing, and she could not 
 apply any outward remedy. Sitting down, and holding 
 up her hand, she said, "Father, into thy Hand I commit 
 my hand." To keep it there she recalled, "When thou 
 
80 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned : neither 
 shall the flame kindle upon thee." "We went through 
 fire and water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy 
 place." Then she fed her hand upon the unwavering 
 confidence that something had passed upon it. Her soul 
 "perceived" that the Lord's "virtue" had touched and 
 healed. It was more real than any outward application 
 could be. The Creator is greater than things created. 
 When the baking was finished all suffering had ceased, 
 and the signs of the burn rapidly vanished. Knowing 
 and doing heal and save. 
 
 Zacharias and John did not leave the earth to behold 
 angels and have visions of glory. Elisha prayed, and 
 the eyes of the young man were opened to behold the 
 mountain full of horses and chariots. Prayer opens the 
 actual, physical eyes, and it does it by first bringing the 
 inner eyes of the soul to behold the Source of all sights. 
 The spiritual first, and the manifestation follows. "The 
 Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every 
 plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every 
 herb of the field before it grew" To create in this way 
 is the purpose and province of prayer. 
 
 Angels, as men, appeared to Abraham, Lot, Jacob and 
 Moses. These proclaim the nearness and presence of 
 the spiritual world. He who prays should see and hear 
 what the prayerless man cannot. It is the Christian's 
 covenant and pledge. So long as students are taught 
 that the days of signs and wonders are over, that every- 
 thing must be in the heart, and no outward manifesta- 
 tion, just so long will God and life be distant, and disease 
 and death immanent and imminent. Sight and growth 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 81 
 
 are one. A wicked and adulterous generation may have 
 no sights and signs, but "these signs shall follow" those 
 who have truly grown in grace. 
 
 Ps. xci is a prayer that inviolably protects, and subju- 
 gates all that afflicts and distresses inwardly and out- 
 wardly. A lad prayed for his brother in battle. Over 
 and over he repeated, "a thousand shall fall at thy side, 
 and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come 
 nigh thee," until something (or Someone ?) told him his 
 brother would not be hit. When the brother returned 
 and was told of it, he exclaimed: "I believe that. The 
 bullets were flying thick around me that day, when all at 
 once I felt a consciousness that I was protected. All 
 my fear passed away, and I went through the battle like 
 one with a charmed life." 
 
 . "Except ye become as a little child." "Bear ye one 
 another's burdens." 
 
 A child of three years, daily taught God's love and 
 nearness, cut his finger. Not in the least alarmed at the 
 sight of blood, he went to his mother and said : "Mamma, 
 Wash my finner, and put a rag on it. Dod will fitz it" 
 (God will fix it). The next day, on contemplating the 
 healed finger, free from soreness, he said: "I bleve I'll 
 tut my finner aden, jus to see Dod fitz it." At that early 
 age he had learned to see God in his flesh, healing and 
 making whole, and the sight was fascinating and ab- 
 sorbing. 
 
 The sword that pierced through Mary's soul at the 
 
 crucifixion of the Son, also pierces the soul of those to 
 
 whom the spiritual is more real and dependable than the 
 
 material, when they hear the light laugh and the denial 
 
 6 
 
82 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 of the power of prayer of those who have been reared 
 in the church. The Lord is crucified anew. He has not 
 wholly come to such; they are still looking for another. 
 They have never tasted the fruit of His resurrection. 
 
 It is not difficult to find young men and women, who 
 will open their eyes in astonishment and smile dubiously 
 when prayer is spoken of as a healing power. 
 
 A young man, to whom a lady told her instantaneous 
 healing when anointed with oil and prayed for, shook 
 his head slowly, and with a meaningless smile said: "I 
 should want something more than that." Something 
 more than God, all-mighty f 
 
 Two young women, members of the church, on being 
 told that a companion's accident was a case of man pro- 
 posing and God disposing, that the violation of the fifth 
 commandment had been punished by God, not arbitrarily, 
 but in the relations of cause and effect, tossed their heads 
 and exclaimed together : "Do you think God is interested 
 enough in her to take notice of such a small thing as 
 that? I do not believe any such thing." And yet, "not 
 a sparrow falleth, but our Lord doth know." 
 
 The Via Dolorosa is paved with these stones. After 
 teaching the lessons of the healing miracles of our Lord, 
 a Sunday School teacher remarked that, as the result of 
 these lessons, which she had not emphasized in regard to 
 the body (but our Lord did), one lad had so interpreted 
 them for himself. An injured knee, which caused his 
 parents anxiety, was taken to Jesus, as the lessons taught. 
 He claimed the promise, arose from his couch, leaped 
 with joy and declared his knee well. . Another teacher 
 inquired: "But was it well? I'm afraid that's a danger- 
 ous thing !" It is safe to teach about our Lord's healing 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 83 
 
 work and power, but a dangerous thing to put it into 
 practice. 
 
 A devout and believing priest, who lived to be nearly 
 one hundred years of age, passed through several severe 
 illnesses with the aid of prayer alone. A drop of medi- 
 cine had never passed his lips or been used on his body. 
 He taught his people that the healing of Jesus is still 
 available, awaiting their faith. 
 
 At the last Conference of the Emmanuel Society in 
 England, in an address on "Prayer as a Factor in Heal- 
 ing," Lord Radstock said: "I want to call your attention 
 to one passage in S. Matthew, 'Again I say unto you 
 that if two of you shall agree upon earth as to what ye 
 shall ask, it shall be done of my Father' — there must 
 first be union; we must be gathered together in His 
 name. This brings identification with Christ, which 
 means power. Healing comes when the spiritual lesson 
 is learned. The victory is all in His name. For myself, 
 no doctor has for forty years been asked for help for 
 me or for my children. One child was cured instanta- 
 neously of spinal curvature, the child calling out, *J esus 
 has done it !' and the next day that child could walk four 
 miles." 
 
 A man met a newsboy; the little fellow was crying. 
 Said the man, "Whenever you are discouraged and find 
 things going wrong, don't cry, but send a telegram to 
 God for help." 
 
 A few weeks later the boy rushed up to the man and 
 said, "Say, Mister, I've been trying the sky telegram, 
 and I've sold more papers since I've been doing that than 
 I ever did before." This little street Arab had learned, 
 
84 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 probably for the first time, something of the nearness 
 and reality of unseen Helpers. 
 
 It is the Christian's privilege to telegraph and tele- 
 phone, with souls as transmitter and recipient, but since 
 Christians have not believed, have not taken God at His 
 word, the Father, longing to pour forth the riches of 
 His grace, has had to use the material scientist, who gets 
 at us in a roundabout way with mechanical devices at the 
 ends of the battery. A very few are proving these 
 things, but they are so scoffed that the road to success is 
 made long and rough. 
 
 We do not pray often and honestly enough. Prayer 
 becomes perfunctory; we rise from prayer as from a 
 duty, instead of a privilege. We come from our closets 
 still hungering for the "peace that passeth understand- 
 ing," still looking for the "light that never shone on land 
 or sea." 
 
 The telegraph and telephone are more real to us than 
 God's voice and answer. We go into telegraph and tele- 
 phone offices, send messages, and come out satisfied. We 
 go to prayer, and come away wondering if anything was 
 really done, despite the most definite and unlimited prom- 
 ises of God. Our first and most sufficient ground of 
 certainty is His promises. "Believe Me for the very 
 works' sake." 
 
 There is no promise for listless, perfunctory prayers. 
 The body is composed of chemicals which are at the 
 mercy of emotions. Envy, hatred and malice poison the 
 fluids of the body. Helpful, constructive and abiding 
 emotions are accumulated and stored up in the sacred 
 moments devoted to prayer; the faith which is thus fed 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 85 
 
 becomes a dynamic within man, and sets in motion the 
 highest laws of his three-fold being. 
 
 As S. Paul met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, 
 so has He been met several times on the streets of a city 
 by a young woman who has given up prayer because she 
 never seemed to get any answers. He always looks sad, 
 and never passes her by, but vanishes just before reach- 
 ing her. He will never pass her by, and some day she 
 will return to her Father's abode. 
 
 A teacher of metaphysics frequently interlarded the 
 instructions with her own experiences in talking with 
 God and the commissions she received in return. One 
 day a student could keep silent no longer, and in perplex- 
 ity exclaimed: "You surprise me, to hear you talk of 
 such a personal intercourse with God. I never heard 
 anything like it. I do not understand." 
 
 The teacher sadly replied : "The surprise should be on 
 my part; that you, born and reared in the church, par- 
 taking of its Communion for nearly half a century, 
 should never have had the joy of making God's voice real 
 to you. Your earthly father is loved because you talk 
 with him. How can you expect ever to love the 
 Heavenly Father, with whom intercourse is not so real 
 as with the earthly father? Your belief is mainly in- 
 tellectual, and is not the knowledge that gives eternal life. 
 To know Him you must walk with Him, talk with Him. 
 You cannot wait to take time for this intercourse ; you 
 must make the time." 
 
 Bishop Creighton declares that the only real thing we 
 can do for another is to pray for him. No one is the 
 same after prayer has been made for him. The editor 
 of "The Healer" says of prayer for the dead: "No diffi- 
 
86 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 culty presents itself to my mind, if we remember that 
 here on earth we are spirits with a material bodily cover- 
 ing, and that when we pass over we are still spirits — 
 only without a material bodily covering. The same life, 
 the Breath of God, sustains us in both places. When we 
 pray for our loved ones, when still in the flesh, our prayer 
 is chiefly that they themselves, their spirit, may be drawn 
 nearer to God. Why should that prayer cease because 
 they have thrown off the material bodily covering? We 
 still long that they may be helped onward and upward, 
 and that more light and strength may be given them, 
 and what can we do but take this intense longing to our 
 Father. 
 
 "We are not able to understand how our intercession 
 for others during their earth-life is allowed to be a means 
 of blessing, but we know that God does use it, and surely 
 it is a materialistic tendency which prevents the contin- 
 uance of our prayers, because they have left this veil of 
 flesh. Prayers for the progress of the Departed abound 
 in the early liturgies of the church, and especially in 
 connection with the celebration of the Holy Communion, 
 where spirit with spirit can meet. It would be well if we 
 need not use the word 'dead/ for 'our God is not the God 
 of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him/ ,; 
 
 The Lambeth Conference Report (1908) has this in- 
 structive passage: "The committee believes that Christ 
 still fulfills in Christian experience His power to give 
 life, and to give it more abundantly, and that the faith 
 which realizes His presence, is capable of creating a 
 heightened vitality of spirit, which strengthens and sus- 
 tains the health of the body. The committee believes 
 that sickness and disease are in one aspect a breach in 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 87 
 
 the harmony of the Divine purpose, not only analagous 
 to, but sometimes at least caused by, want of moral har- 
 mony of Divine Will, and that this restoration of har- 
 mony in mind and will often brings with it the restora- 
 tion of the harmony of the body. It believes that sick- 
 ness has too often exclusively been regarded as a cross 
 to be borne with passive resignation, whereas it should 
 have been regarded rather as a weakness to be overcome 
 by the power of the Spirit. The committee believes that 
 potency of corporate intercession has been too little real- 
 ized, and that the confidence in the efficacy of prayer for 
 the restoration to health has not been sufficiently encour- 
 aged. 
 
 "The committee recommends the addition to the Office 
 for the Visitation of the Sick of more hopeful and less 
 ambiguous petitions for the restoration of health, than 
 this Office at present supplies, and that these petitions be 
 used in close connection with prayer for pardon and 
 peace. And these prayers may be fitly accompanied by 
 the apostolic act of the laying-on of hands." 
 
 "More things are wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 
 Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
 For what are men better than sheep or goats 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer , 
 Both for themselves and those who call them friend? 
 For so the whole round world is every way 
 Bound by golden chains about the feet of God." 
 
 "Who prays not, exists, but he lives not, 
 A blot and a discord is he." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE HUNGER FOR BODILY HEALING IS GOD- 
 IMPLANTED. 
 
 We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, 
 to wit, the redemption of our body. — Rom. 8: 23. 
 
 For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of 
 His bones. — Eph. 5 : 30. 
 
 The body is for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. — 
 I Cor. 6: 13. 
 
 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the 
 dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead 
 shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that 
 dweileth in you. — Rom. 8: 11. 
 
 For I am the Lord that healeth thee. — Ex. 15: 26. 
 
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy 
 diseases. — Ps. 103: 3. 
 
 The prayer of faith shall save the sick; . . . pray 
 for one another, that ye may be healed. — Jas. 5:15, 16. 
 
 The editor of "The Healer" says: "It is strange that 
 one of unmistakable Christian principles should say, 
 'we have passed beyond the days of S. James !' and, fur- 
 ther, that the 'gift of healing' mentioned by S. Paul and 
 S. James was of a transient nature, and not designed for 
 perpetuity in the church! Once admit this, and where 
 are we to draw the line as to what is transient and what 
 is perpetual? Our Lord's injunction to the church was 
 to 'preach the gospel and heal the sick.' Are we to obey 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 89 
 
 the first and ignore the second? The ministry of the 
 church must be identical with the ministry of her Lord 
 and Master, which, according to the gospel narrative — 
 and S. Peter's testimony — was the 'ministry of heal- 
 ing' — the complete redemption of both body and soul." 
 
 Rev. Kenneth Mackenzie declares : "Divine healing 
 is just Divine life. It is the headship of Christ over the 
 body. It is the life of Christ in the physical frame. It 
 is the union of our members with the very Body of 
 Christ, and the inflowing life of Christ in our living 
 members." 
 
 Ask the question, "What do you think of the healing 
 of the body by the prayer of faith?" when and where you 
 may, the answer will invariably be, "I believe it can be 
 done, though much depends on the individual ; but of 
 course the healing of the soul is the most important." 
 
 This is the favorite answer of those who stand in pul- 
 pits. When the command, "Preach and heal," is read, 
 the first clause is received with both eyes wide open, but 
 both eyes are closed to the "and heal." 
 
 We are told that the healing is for sin of the soul, and 
 not for the body, yet our Lord made no such distinction, 
 and meant no such thing. When He opened eyes, it was 
 physical eyes ; when He healed all sickness and all man- 
 ner of diseases, He restored the body. His disciples 
 interpreted Him thus and did the works that He did; 
 likewise the Seventy whom He sent forth; and His 
 words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth 
 on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater 
 works than these shall he do; because I go unto my 
 Father," are a command to all Christians as well as a 
 
go The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 legacy. It is indeed true that the soul is first; that our 
 Lord pronounced it such when He said, "Fear not them 
 which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but 
 rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and 
 body in hell." But this did not prevent His healing the 
 body by His word. It is possible to let the soul loom up 
 so largely that it will shut out the benefit which should 
 accrue to the body, except that which comes in an aim- 
 less, general, indirect way; it is also equally possible to 
 let the welfare of the body detract from the soul's 
 growth. Extremes are always bad, but there is an ele- 
 ment of truth in extremes which, if used aright, will 
 bring about the happy medium. 
 
 Those who, in their God-implanted hunger for physical 
 healing, have left the church, and are following this and 
 that "ism," will tell you that the church has neglected 
 one-half of our Lord's command, is preaching but half 
 the gospel to half the man, and has the divided garment. 
 In reply the church declares, more truthfully and signifi- 
 cantly, that the cults have the divided garment, and 
 points to all the commands of our Lord — baptism with 
 water, as His body was baptized, which rite He taught 
 His disciples to observe, and the Communion of Bread 
 and Wine, of which He partook, and also commanded 
 His disciples to perpetuate, declaring it to be an eternal 
 Sacrament. "But I say unto you," He said, "I will not 
 drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day 
 when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." 
 And again, "Teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 91 
 
 / have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway 
 even unto the end of the world." 
 
 Amongst these all things, baptism of the body and 
 Communion of Bread and Wine were recognized by His 
 disciples. It was only by strictly observing ( 'all things 
 whatsoever I have commanded" that the early church 
 healed the sick, cast out devils and raised the dead for 
 six centuries after our Lord's ascension; which works, 
 in sporadic cases, have continued down through the cen- 
 turies. In the Dark Ages, when the church was steeped 
 in materialism, the angels of His Presence sheltered and 
 preserved the rush-light of the faithful healers; but to- 
 day the Holy Spirit is fanning into new life the healing 
 gifts of both body and soul. 
 
 Our Lord's full redemptive work must include the 
 body, as testified by S. Paul: "Because the creature itself 
 shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God; . . . 
 even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for 
 the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Our 
 Lord came to give life, and give it more abundantly, 
 declaring to Mary and Martha, that if they would truly 
 believe (receive, literally) "that He was the resurrection 
 and the life," that even on this earth the life should re- 
 turn to the body of Lazarus. He does not want us to 
 die, but live, as shown in the restoration from the grave 
 of the bodies of the little maid, the widow's son, of Laza- 
 rus, and of those who were raised from the dead by His 
 disciples. The Early Fathers tell us that the whole 
 church fasted and prayed for one who had died, but 
 could not be spared, and he was restored. S. Peter also 
 
92 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 brought Dorcas to life, "a woman full of good works 
 and alms-deeds," who was a necessity to their work. 
 
 Our Lord is the Life, and He is with us. It is His 
 boundless mercy and compassionate love that heal, and 
 they have never been withdrawn. He, the Life, stands 
 knocking at the door of the soul, but we hear Him not, 
 and the attuned ear may still hear His cry, "O, Jeru- 
 salem, Jerusalem, ye will not come to Me, that ye might 
 have life." Those who are working for life here and 
 now are hastening the Lord of Life's coming, and not 
 those who are expecting death, and declaring diseases 
 incurable when they have never been laid before our 
 Lord in prayer. 
 
 England thinks that America has accepted the healing 
 more readily than herself. It may be that the younger 
 brother, with the eagerness and impetuosity of youth, 
 has indeed jumped head and heels into the midst of a 
 mighty work; but he is beginning to realize the truth of 
 the maxim that "haste makes waste," and is now consid- 
 ering the necessity for cleaning up the dark corners that 
 have accumulated about the healing work. Our elder 
 brother will do wisely and well to profit by our impet- 
 uosity and cling closely to all our Lord's commands, espe- 
 cially seeing to it that the Stone that is the Incarnation, 
 which many hasty builders have rejected, be made the 
 corner-stone of all healing. 
 
 The question is asked, "What is the difference between 
 the healing in our church and that of the cults?" It is 
 the difference between a man, Jesus, the best and wisest 
 teacher, whose divinity did not differ from our own, 
 save that He recognized and used His, and Jesus Christ, 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 93 
 
 the Divine Humanity, Emmanuel, God with us, the 
 Saviour of the world, from whom still comes the virtue 
 to make the body whole. It is the difference between 
 reducing the practices and teachings of our Lord to ab- 
 stract principles, and practicing and maintaining them 
 as commanded by Him and His disciples. It is the dif- 
 ference between the Immaculate Conception of our Lord, 
 and an immaculate conception voiced in some statement 
 of an erring, human being. It is the difference between 
 the resurrection of our Lord, believed and taught by His 
 followers, and, as Irenseus says, "simply an acquaintance 
 with that truth which they proclaim." To sum up, it is 
 the difference between building a house on the sand, and 
 building a house on the Rock. It is not denied that you 
 can build a house on the sand, but its enduring qualities 
 are vividly portrayed in the gospels. 
 
 It is the day of the deification of the intellect, and 
 those who have left the church are making the fatal mis- 
 take of separating Jesus from Christ. To them, Jesus 
 is a wise man who used the Christ principle for body 
 and soul. Christ is an abstract principle, pervading all 
 people and things, a power at their beck and call to bring 
 showers of blessings when they affirm, and the opposite 
 when they deny. 
 
 An adherent of a cult, who sends forth books by the 
 hundreds, tells readers to "just rise into the realm of 
 I am, and by imagination and affirmation pump yourself 
 full of — I am power, I am wisdom, I am love." And 
 again, "quietly realize that the Infinite is really you." 
 
 Far better that we go through this world with all the 
 bodily sufferings which attack the flesh, than to separate 
 
94 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Jesus from Christ and accept such teaching as this. 
 Such teachers would do well to remember our Lord's 
 words: "When I come again shall I find the faith upon 
 the earth?" The faith which has obeyed all His com- 
 mands. 
 
 Even the material scientist is quietly proving in his 
 laboratory that symbols are more than symbols when 
 they are laid before our Lord and weighted with prayer. 
 Just as the needle, brought into contact with the magnet, 
 becomes more than a needle — a needle plus — and is then 
 empowered to draw other needles, so the bread and 
 wine, laid before the altar and imbued with prayer, which 
 is communion or contact with God, exalts the recipient 
 body and soul, and being lifted up he is enabled to draw 
 all men unto God. 
 
 The teachers of the various cults will tell you that they 
 can do all these things without the aid of the symbols 
 which our Lord used and commanded His church to use. 
 Even the church is not fully awake to the health-giving 
 power of the Eucharist. It is the deepest, most sacred, 
 most powerful form of prayer, when prayer is under- 
 stood to mean contact with God. Rev. Percy Dearmer 
 says: "S. Paul states clearly the effect of a sacrament 
 upon bodily health. . . . He states definitely that 
 the unworthy reception of the Holy Communion pro- 
 duces a lowering of physical vitality. . . . We 
 should expect this to happen, since spiritual things affect 
 both the spirit and soul of man, and it is the hidden part 
 of his soul, in the undermind, which controls the func- 
 tions of the body. The effect of this lowering of a man's 
 intrinsic vitality could not be better expressed — he be- 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 95 
 
 comes 'weakly and sickly.' Apparently S. Paul means 
 also to suggest that some have died because of this, 'not 
 a few sleep/ A Sacrament, we may conclude, rightly 
 received, raises the vitality and thus strengthens the 
 body. It is a means of healing; and to this we bear wit- 
 ness whenever our English form for the reception of 
 Holy Communion is used — 'The Body of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and 
 soul unto everlasting life.' " 
 
 Our Lord promised to meet us at the Holy Commun- 
 ion, and to bestow healing upon body and soul. But 
 the communicants must know this in order to get the full 
 benefit ; the teaching is not sufficiently definite on the 
 subject. Ignorance is ranked as a sin, when we pray, 
 "forgive us all our sins, negligences and ignorances." 
 It makes the ignorant receive the Eucharist "unworth- 
 ily," and come under condemnation. One cannot have 
 faith in something of which he is ignorant, and so, com- 
 ing without faith in bodily healing is again "unworthi- 
 ness." Sick bodies are brought to the Communion, and 
 sick bodies are taken away. The soul is strengthened 
 to bear instead of encouraged to conquer. Expectation 
 is one of the most powerful mental attitudes for healing, 
 and the communicants should be taught to know why 
 they should be healed in body. 
 
 Malachi gives a striking arraignment of this state of 
 things. "A son honoreth his father, and a servant his 
 master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and 
 if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of 
 hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And 
 ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? 
 
g6 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 "Ye offer polluted bread upon my altar; and ye say, 
 Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The 
 table of the Lord is contemptible. 
 
 "And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? 
 and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it 
 now unto thy governor: will he be pleased with thee, 
 or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 "But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of 
 the Lord is polluted ; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, 
 is contemptible. 
 
 "Ye have also said, Behold, what a weariness is it! 
 and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts : and ye 
 brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the 
 sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this 
 of your hand? saith the Lord." 
 
 The reception of the Eucharist is lacking in complete- 
 ness and power when the communicant does not get the 
 full benefit, for body as well as soul, and this S. Paul 
 termed receiving "unworthily." What a great power 
 for bodily healing the church has in the Eucharist. A 
 noted physician declared that a patient, who, to his pro- 
 fessional mind, was dying, was restored to life by his 
 taking the Communion for him. A devout priest bears 
 witness thus: "I marvel at the greatness and life-giving 
 properties of the Holy Sacrament. An old woman who 
 was spitting blood and who had lost all strength, being 
 unable to eat anything, after the administration of the 
 Holy Sacrament began to recover the same day from her 
 illness." 
 
 "A young girl who was almost dying, after the Com- 
 munion of the Holy Sacrament began to revive the same 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 97 
 
 day from her illness; began to eat, drink and speak; 
 while before this she was almost in a state of uncon- 
 sciousness, violently tossed about, and could neither eat 
 nor drink anything. Glory to thy life-giving and terri- 
 ble mysteries, O Lord." 
 
 Canon Gardiner, at the Canterbury Diocesan Confer- 
 ence, said: "I have said nothing of Unction, God's gift 
 of healing; I have referred only to the laying on of 
 hands with prayer as a means of grace. We clergy could 
 do more, I think, to bring spiritual healing to our people. 
 We can teach the power of prayer. We can do much to 
 release the patient from doubts and fears and the burden 
 of sin, by the ministry of reconciliation. We can, above 
 all, bring home to our people the effect of the Holy Com- 
 munion upon the body as well as the soul." 
 
 At a recent conference the question was put in the 
 question-box: "If our Lord commanded His followers 
 to heal the sick, why is the church not obeying His com- 
 mand?" The rector answered that the church was heal- 
 ing in its preaching, and then went on to tell of very ill 
 and dying people who had been healed by prayer and by 
 the Communion. He told of brother rectors who had 
 the same experiences, and then added, "but we rectors 
 never talk about these things." 
 
 But why do not rectors talk of these things? When 
 all around the cults are flourishing on cures produced 
 by suggestion, by the power of mind controlling matter, 
 and such like cures, why do the rectors hold their peace 
 at the true healing of our Lord? Shall the children of 
 darkness be more wise in telling of their cures than the 
 children of light? How long shall the Lord's light be 
 7 
 
98 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 hid under a bushel, while we witness the steady leakage 
 from our churches into cults that are leading people into 
 darkness, after a man, Jesus, instead of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ? The church is responsible for this confusion. 
 
 The hunger for bodily healing is God-implanted, and 
 there is no hunger of the people the church cannot meet. 
 Before the altar the priests stand and dispense its gifts 
 to the soul, while behind the altar the talent of healing 
 lies, unused, accumulating no interest. The church 
 may go on for centuries arraigning the cults and their 
 evils, and with little results. If she would combat all 
 this evil teaching, she must preach all the gospel to all 
 the man, healing the body as well as the soul, for the 
 devil knew what he was talking about when he said of 
 Job, "All that a man hath will he give for his life." As 
 a noted divine writes : "If the church, closing her eyes to 
 the example of her Lord and deaf to His commands, 
 withholds from the people the gifts committed to her by 
 Jesus, she must expect to find herself forsaken for 
 strange cults which, with all their absurdities, aim at 
 supplying present strength for present needs/' 
 
 One thing is undoubtedly standing in the way of the 
 church's beginning the healing, and that is the thought 
 that it must be begun and carried on by skilled workers, 
 trained in psychology, suggestion, and such things. The 
 Bible gives no warrant for any such view. Psychology 
 and its branches are very well in their place, but they 
 are but drops in the bucket compared to the power of 
 men and women which can be found in all churches, 
 whose souls pant for God as the hart paneth for the 
 water brooks; men and women who have a passion for 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 99 
 
 God, and who know that prayer is the power that can 
 rule the world, and that the "practice of the presence of 
 God" is the only requisite for healing of body and soul. 
 Had the late Convention in Cincinnati heard the heart- 
 throbs and prayers of its people hungering for spiritual 
 healing, and also heard the clamor of the powers of evil 
 leagued together to prevent the healing, the members 
 could never have returned to their homes and churches 
 with an easy conscience. God help the wee and weak 
 lambs that may stray far from the fold ere the next Con- 
 vention meets. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy 
 diseases. — Ps. 103 : 3. 
 
 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? 
 why then is not the health of the daughter of my people 
 recovered? — Jer. 8: 22. 
 
 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is thy refuge, 
 even the Most High, thy habitation, 
 
 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague 
 come nigh thy dwelling (body — R. V.). — Ps. 91: 10, 11. 
 
 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not 
 have you ignorant. — I Cor. 12: I. 
 
 There is a woeful ignorance concerning these spiritual 
 gifts, about which S. Paul was anxious that all should 
 understand. There is something worse than ignorance, 
 
ioo The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 there is an actual scoffing. S, Paul thus enumerates 
 them: "There are different ways of serving the Master, 
 but the Master is the same: spiritual illumination is in 
 each instance given for some good purpose. While the 
 power to speak wisely is given to one man by the means 
 of the Spirit, the gift to another is the power to speak 
 with knowledge; to another faith is given through the 
 same Spirit; to another ability to cure diseases through 
 the one Spirit ; to another miraculous powers ; to another 
 the prophetic gift; to another the gift of distinguishing 
 between true and false inspiration; to another varieties 
 of the gift of tongues, and to another the power to ex- 
 plain them." — Twentieth Century New Testament. 
 
 When, with the laying on of hands, which has always 
 conferred something more and special, it is prayed that 
 the Holy Spirit "may increase His manifold gifts of 
 grace," why do we not expect to find amongst us some 
 of these spiritual gifts so clearly defined by S. Paul? 
 When one is found, what is the general attitude? 
 
 How many supplicants know what they are saying 
 when they pray, "pour out upon them the seven-fold 
 gifts of Thy Holy Spirit"? How much longer shall 
 these things be the mere "letter that killeth"? 
 
 A young man mashed his hand and shattered his fore- 
 arm. Several surgeons were called in, and without ex- 
 ception declared it impossible to set the arm; it must be 
 cut off. Turning to his mother, the young man cried: 
 "Mother, I'd rather die now than go through life with 
 one arm." With prayer in heart and voice she replied: 
 "Your arm shall be saved." One surgeon was willing 
 to do the best he could, and the arm was set. Hourly 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 101 
 
 the mother strove in prayer. Hand and arm were saved 
 perfectly whole and sound. "As many as touched were 
 made perfectly whole." 
 
 The issues of life are alone in God's hand, not in any 
 man's. Our Lord healed thousands called incurable by 
 the ignorant, and instead of dooming to death He de- 
 clared "all things are possible to those who believe and 
 come to Me for life." We can believe what we will 
 believe. We can see and hear what we will see and 
 hear. It is time to stop saying "incurable." No man 
 has the right or knowledge to condemn any case to in- 
 curableness or death. An eminent physician and surgeon 
 declared that he had seen such marvelous recoveries that 
 he always lived in hope of life in every case. Dr. Loren 
 Batten, of S. Mark's, New York, says that "there is 
 scarcely such a thing known as a uniformly fatal disease. 
 A few escape." 
 
 A boil on a lad's leg turned into a running sore, which 
 continued thus for years. Pieces of bone were removed 
 again and again. It was pronounced incurable, and the 
 lad would never reach manhood. He was made a sub- 
 ject of prayer, the leg was completely healed, and he is 
 now the father of two children. 
 
 A similar case was that of a woman of sixty years. 
 No bone had ever been removed, but she had been dis- 
 abled for nearly ten years. This, too, was perfectly 
 healed by prayer. 
 
 A woman from early childhood had been a sufferer 
 from head colds, which, descending to the throat, caused 
 loss of voice for many days. With hourly use of internal 
 and external remedies, the trouble was never relieved 
 
102 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 under six or eight weeks. When she learned that such 
 "attacks" were "messengers of Satan to buffet," she 
 arose to the situation with righteous indignation at the 
 first sign, and the "young lion and dragon were put 
 under foot" in three days, and sometimes instantly routed. 
 
 A woman was ofttimes seized with abdominal cramps, 
 which would finally yield after many hours of heroic 
 treatment. One day, when attacked, there was with her 
 a friend who had learned and experienced God's healing 
 for the body. They talked on the subject, and in fifteen 
 minutes she was totally healed. She has never had a 
 recurrence in eighteen years. 
 
 "And Simon's wife's mother was taken (seized) with 
 a great fever ; and they besought Him for her. And He 
 stood over her and rebuked the fever; and it left her: 
 and immediately she arose, and ministered unto them." 
 
 Do we rebuke fevers today? Why not? We cannot 
 believe that the Master was joking, or perpetuating igno- 
 rance and darkness. He came to bring, in word and 
 deed, knowledge and light. It is S. Luke only, the 
 physician, who tells of this healing as the result of a 
 rebuke. Personality is involved in a rebuke, not condi- 
 tions and things. Rev. John Naylor, in the Hibbert 
 Journal, gives some light on this case. 
 
 He says: "It is striking the extent to which S. Luke 
 carries the idea of demoniac influence. In common with 
 S. Matthew, he regards dumbness as due to it. The 
 word used means bad demon, or evil spirit. How came 
 S. Luke to make such frequent use of this term if he 
 did not believe in demons as causes of diseases, for in 
 nearly all cases they are connected by him with disease. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 103 
 
 Many examples place it beyond doubt that S. Luke was a 
 convinced believer in the causation of many physical and 
 psychical disorders by evil spirits, and that he regarded 
 such spirits as ministers in a realm of evil whose ruler 
 was Satan. 
 
 "He would probably have agreed with Philo in hold- 
 ing that 'the air is full of corporeal beings/ and with the 
 disciples in holding that when Christ rebuked the winds 
 He did so because these beings in the guise of stormy 
 gusts were bent on the wreck of the boat. That both 
 Jesus and Christians believed in demons is patent. S. 
 Paul had no doubts about them. The powers of the air 
 were intensely real to him, as were the bufferings of 
 Satan. In the Christian churches the same belief pre- 
 vailed. Christ Himself neither said nor did anything 
 to reduce or remove that belief. The Master did accept 
 it. He never doubted it. A Presbyterian missionary, 
 Doctor Nevins, said that when he went to China he at 
 first despised and condemned the prevalent belief in de- 
 moniac possession, but after the lapse of years he ac- 
 cepted it." 
 
 A little girl of eight years was "seized with a fever." 
 The Sunday School teacher, believing in prayer, took her 
 home to nurse, thus relieving the mother who had other 
 little ones to care for. As she lay on the bed in a partial 
 stupor, the teacher prayed for light, which was given 
 her by the Holy Spirit. Turning to the child, she in- 
 quired what was bothering her. With an effort, the 
 
 child drowsily asked: "Mrs. , are we born under a 
 
 star?" 
 
 The child was a deep thinker, and mused much alone. 
 
104 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Instantly it occurred to the teacher that she had heard 
 some perplexing jargon about ill fates under certain 
 stars, and this psychic fever was the result. She shook 
 her shoulder gently to arouse her, and firmly said: 
 "Elizabeth, you are born under God. You are His high- 
 est creation, and everything else is under you. You have 
 nothing to fear. Now turn over, go to sleep, and wake 
 up well." The fever instantly began to diminish and 
 disappear. The next morning the child was sound and 
 well, and she went home to "minister unto" her mother. 
 
 A lad came from school one Friday in a listless mood. 
 All day Saturday he tried to be interested in his work 
 and play, but when night came he said to his mother: "I 
 would like to sleep with you tonight." That was the sig- 
 nal that he had done his best to work out his own salva- 
 tion, but now felt the need of help. The mother went 
 early to bed with him, talked long and earnestly of God's 
 love and care, His nearness and willingness to stretch 
 forth His hand that is not shortened that it cannot save, 
 promised to awake and pray for him while he slept, and 
 as he went off to sleep repeated with him the Lord's 
 Prayer. When she awoke the next morning, glancing at 
 his breast, she saw it lightly marked with measles. She 
 explained the nature of the battle he was to wage, add- 
 ing, "As it is raining today, you need not drive in with 
 us to the city to church. I shall leave you at home to do 
 your work. Alone with God, while I pray with you be- 
 fore the altar, you can conquer this day, and tomorrow 
 be ready for school." 
 
 At her request he made a successful effort to be pres- 
 ent at every meal and to eat a fair portion for conscience 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 105 
 
 sake. The eruption never spread, and on Monday morn- 
 ing every vestige had disappeared from the body; he 
 ate breakfast with relish, went to school, and had not 
 another day of discomfort. . 
 
 Herein was proved the truth of Sir John Forbes' state- 
 ment, that "means acting directly on the mind are fully 
 as powerful and effective in disease of a purely bodily 
 character as in mental disease," and also that of Dr. Paul 
 Dubois : "The battle against all this is one of moral re- 
 sistance, and not of physical health." 
 
 A young negro woman, employed by a lady who had 
 known her from childhood, and in whom the girl had 
 implicit trust, failing to do her work with the usual alac- 
 rity, was questioned as to the cause, and explained that 
 for three or four months she had been bothered with a 
 female trouble which was now telling on her and giving 
 alarm, as friends had declared it would kill her. Having 
 no money for a doctor, and being afraid of examination 
 and operation, she had borne it alone until now she was 
 ready to give up. 
 
 The lady took her Bible and read of the woman who 
 touched the hem of Christ's garment and was instantly 
 healed. In a positive tone she said: "Mary, you need 
 not fear. You will live. Believe, and you, too, can 
 touch the hem of His garment and be healed." Spiritual 
 instruction and assurance were given freely and firmly. 
 The Lord's Prayer was repeated together (that His will 
 might be done on earth as in heaven, where there is no 
 fear, no pain, no death), and the girl went about her 
 duties. The next day was Friday ; not a word was asked 
 about how the girl felt ("what things soever ye desire, 
 
106 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall 
 have them") but the simple inquiry: "Mary, would you 
 like me to say the Lord's Prayer with you today?" 
 
 Again they repeated the prayer together, and assur- 
 ance was renewed. The next day being a busy one for 
 Sabbath preparation, the inquiry was forgotten. When 
 the girl returned on Monday the lady remarked: "Mary, 
 I was so busy Saturday that I forgot to ask if you wished 
 the Lord's Prayer said with you." 
 
 The girl replied exultingly : "Why, I was healed Thurs- 
 day. It was just like the woman in the Bible." After 
 that she was frequently healed instantly. 
 
 This young woman had been told to stop talking aches 
 and pains, to refuse to name diseases, and that it was all 
 a battle with Satan. Failing to come to do her weekly 
 housecleaning, some days after she strolled slowly up to 
 the house, and as the lady appeared she dragged out: 
 
 "I come to tell you I didn't come." 
 
 "Well, Mary, why didn't you come?" 
 
 "I been a fighting." 
 
 "What have you been fighting?" 
 
 "Why, you know — that thing that's going all around 
 the country. All my folks had it, and I been' a nursing 
 them. They kept a saying I'd get it, and I said I 
 wouldn't, but when I woke Thursday I found it had me. 
 I made up my mind I'd fight it. I would not lie down, 
 for some of them would come in and find me. So I 
 sent my husband off fishing, scraped up all the clothes 
 in the house, washed and ironed them, and did not go to 
 bed till my usual hour. The next day I had to fight 
 again, so I went into the woods and walked up and down 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 107 
 
 all day. This morning I had conquered, but I was too 
 weak to come to work." 
 
 The lady was deeply interested, and said : "Mary, I am 
 proud of you, and I know God is, too. Your victory 
 will help me to victory; but I am truly curious to know 
 what you have fought so valiantly." 
 
 "Now, you-you-you know" (she stuttered sometimes), 
 "it was th-th-th-s-s-satchel." 
 
 Not even for her benefactress would she say "Grippe." 
 
 "Put on all the armor of God, so that you may be able 
 to stand your ground against the stratagem of the devil. 
 For our struggle is not against the enemies of flesh and 
 blood, but against the powers of evil, against those that 
 hold sway in the darkness around us, and against the 
 spirits of wickedness on high. Therefore take all the 
 armor of God, in order that when the evil day comes, 
 you may be able to withstand the attack, and having 
 carried the struggle through, still to stand your ground." 
 — Twentieth Century New Testament. 
 
 To see an uneducated, undeveloped negro girl, with 
 her so-called friends arrayed against her, "carry the 
 struggle through and still stand her ground," is a sting- 
 ing rebuke to those who lightly say, "It sounds all right, 
 but I cannot do it." They will not do it. But some 
 time, in some place, whether in their physical body or 
 out, the struggle will have to be made. Every weakness 
 will have to be trans formed into strength. They will 
 have to prove that "they can do all things through Christ 
 that strengtheneth them." The "second death" will give 
 them a chance to prove that not through disease and 
 decay does man reach God, but through transfiguration, 
 the renewing of the mind, seeing things as God sees them. 
 
108 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 A woman with Bright's disease had been pronounced 
 incurable by several doctors. In agony she went for 
 help to the last doctor, who had grown tired of the case. 
 He told her nothing more could be done; that any rem- 
 edy would but temporarily relieve, and that it was a 
 matter o'f but a few months of life. She left his office 
 with a bottle and prescription. She had three children 
 to live for. In despair she stood on a corner and prayed 
 for help and guidance. There came into her mind that 
 a few blocks away was a woman who believed in the 
 healing "virtue" of the Lord. She called upon her. 
 For more than two hours they read the Bible, talked and 
 prayed. The healing began then and there. The bottle 
 and prescription were thrown away. That was nearly 
 eighteen years ago, and she is alive and active today. 
 
 A young woman was taken with typhoid fever; like 
 her mother, she could not take internal remedies, but 
 was nursed and nourished hourly by a mother who be- 
 lieved in the power of prayer which had healed her after 
 man and drugs had failed. At the end of three weeks 
 the mother asked a friend, who lived in the country, to 
 join her in prayer. One Saturday morning, as this friend 
 was in the midst of housecleaning, there surged into her 
 mind a need for special prayer for the girl. She sat 
 down. The room faded from her sight. In the air be- 
 fore her there arose a cloud of glistening white, which, 
 parting, disclosed an arched bridge over which a funeral 
 procession was passing. As she gazed she recognized 
 in the throng the young girl for whom she was praying. 
 A voice said : "Pray, that she pass not over the arch and 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 109 
 
 down the other side." Falling upon her knees, she cried 
 out to Him who is Life, who giveth life and restoreth 
 even the dead to the arms of loving parents. The vision 
 passed. She arose, satisfied by the Spirit that the girl 
 was safe. 
 
 It was learned later that at that hour the girl arose 
 from the bed, took a few steps towards her mother, and 
 dropped at her feet apparently dead. The mother cried 
 out, "O, if Mrs. — were only here we could bring her 
 back !" Then there came to her mind the talks they had 
 often had together, of the living, present Christ, who, as 
 with Lazarus, is still the "resurrection and the life" to 
 those who believe. She cried out to Him; she saw only 
 Him and Life, and not the daughter and death. The 
 breath returned to the girl ; she arose, and was saved. 
 
 The cry of the mother for her friend had been heard 
 by her amidst busy housework; space was annihilated; 
 the "two were joined together in His Name;" conditions 
 were fulfilled, and His promise was kept — "there was He, 
 Life, in the midst of them." 
 
 "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the 
 life : he that believeth in me, though he have died, yet 
 shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
 shall never die. Believest thou this? Jesus said unto 
 her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, 
 thou shouldest see the glory of God?" 
 
 In this case there was communication without speech 
 in the usual way. We call it telepathy. No mechanical 
 devices of man's hands, but spirit with spirit meeting. 
 What a great reservoir of spiritual power is all about us, 
 waiting for man to grow in righteousness and use for 
 
no The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 the glory of God. What a transfigured church we might 
 have, if we would but believe and utilize the promises — 
 transfigured from the church militant to the church tri- 
 umphant, even the triumph over the last enemy, death. 
 We are drinking so sparingly of the inexhaustible Foun- 
 tain. What might not the church be if it fully availed 
 itself of all the forces and powers at its disposal. 
 
 S. Paul knew that body, soul and spirit were necessary 
 for man's integrity and usefulness, and he caught a vis- 
 ion of the law whereby the mortal body might be trans- 
 figured by the renewing of the mind. Believing with 
 all his being in the second coming of Jesus Christ, he 
 passed this law on to the Thessalonians when he said: 
 "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be pre- 
 served blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 He longed for the resurrection that should not come 
 through bodily death and decay. Has any one the 
 hardihood to mock S. Paul and call him a foolish and 
 deluded dreamer? This was undoubtedly one of the 
 things he received when he was "caught up into para- 
 dise, and heard unspeakable words." He handed it 
 on, that others might take it up, and adding the force 
 of their faith might bring it to pass. How many Chris- 
 tians are adding the force of their faith to S. Paul's mes- 
 sage and longing? 
 
 An English rector in a sermon says: "Enoch and 
 Elijah were permitted to tread that path on which body 
 and soul were permitted to go together. Now the In- 
 finite has no favorites, and the scientific world rightly 
 insists that the Impossible never happens, and that given 
 identically the same condition you get the same results. 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. in 
 
 "Christ taught, 'If a man keep my sayings, i. e., lives 
 a perfect life, he shall never see death ;' but scholars tell 
 us this is not to be taken literally as referring to physical 
 death, and the objection that is raised is: 
 
 "Look at S. Paul and all the saints — they all died. 
 Well ! Christ's hearers were in exactly the same diffi- 
 culty ; they, too, found it a hard saying, and they said to 
 Him, 'Abraham is dead, the prophets are dead, whom 
 makest Thou Thyself?' Now you remember that the 
 word leaven in the New Testament meant either bread 
 or teaching. Christ gave His teaching on the Bread of 
 Life, and then said : 
 
 ' 'Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, 
 and they died,' *. e., a physical death. A few verses on 
 He says, 'This is the bread which came down out of 
 heaven. Not as the fathers did eat and died; he that 
 eateth this bread, i. e., assimilates My teaching, shall live 
 forever.' 
 
 "And Christ Himself was the embodiment of that 
 teaching, and His own experience was a glorious vindi- 
 cation of its truth; for when all the forces of evil were 
 levelled against Him, and death the enemy actually held 
 Him in its clutches, still even then His teaching did not 
 break down, and 'His body knew no corruption, because 
 in Him was no sin;' and the human race was shown 
 clearly and this ideal was put before us (for it was our 
 nature that He had taken upon Him) that if a man lives 
 a perfect life, body and soul will pass together into the 
 other world, for He is our perfect example, and that was 
 what He did. 
 
H2 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 "There is a school of thought arising at the present 
 time whose object is to cast aside the traditional view of 
 death in favor of the view taught in the New Testa- 
 ment, and emphasized by Christ's own victory over our 
 enemies, sin and death." 
 
 Rev. Percy Dearmer relates the following case of " 'la 
 demoiselle Coirin,' whose cure was one of the famous 
 miracles of Blessed Frangois de Paris. In 1716, this 
 lady, then aged 31, fell from her horse; paralysis and an 
 ulcer followed; by 1719 the ulcer was in a horrible con- 
 dition; in 1720 her mother refused an operation, pre- 
 ferring to let her die in peace. In 1731 — after fifteen 
 years of an open breast — she asked a woman to say a 
 novena at the tomb of Francois de Paris, to touch the 
 tomb with her shift, and to bring back some earth. 
 This was done on August 10th; on the nth she put on 
 the shift and at once felt improved; on the 12th she 
 touched the wound with the earth, and it at once began 
 to heal. By the end of August the skin was completely 
 healed up, and on September 24th she went out of doors. 
 Charcot considers that the 'cancer' was due to hysteria, 
 and has no difficulty in accepting all the facts of the dis- 
 ease and its cure on this basis: the breast healed almost 
 at once, and recovered its natural size — 'What wonder,' 
 he says, 'since we know how rapidly troubles of the cir- 
 culation can appear and disappear?' 
 
 "Troubles of the circulation ! A breast built up again 
 after fifteen years! But we are here in the very heart 
 of the organic region! Where shall we draw this line, 
 which is so often taken for granted, between functional 
 and organic, between nervous and other diseases? 
 
The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 113 
 
 Where, indeed, shall we say that the influence of mind is 
 absent either in the cause or cure of disease? It is easy 
 to belittle a miracle by saying that it merely cured a 
 trouble of the circulation; but, merciful heaven! if we 
 can by religious influence train the vaso-motor system, 
 where is the tissue that we cannot touch ?" 
 
 The above writer continues: "The Christian miracles 
 (powers) are signs to every one of spiritual reality: 
 they are significant of a power that can transcend ma- 
 terial things. . . . They are signs of something be- 
 yond the mere healing of the body — they illustrate the 
 supremacy and the fundamental nature of the spirit; 
 and this is what our generation needs to learn. . . . 
 They remind us that health is an important thing, and 
 that the spread of health is one of the prime duties of 
 religion. . . . They tell us also that sickness is not 
 the will of God ; because God is the author of health, and 
 the spreading of His power is the quenching of sick- 
 ness. . . . They are invaluable to the church, and 
 rightly are they classed in Christian Liturgies among the 
 'epiphanies' or manifestations. They show at once both 
 the power and the loving kindness of the Master; but 
 they also precisely show this — that a like power and a 
 like loving kindness is expected from His disciples to- 
 day, as it was expected during His own earthly min- 
 istry." 
 
 "A good report maketh the bones fat." — Prov. 15: 30. 
 
 "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the 
 arm of the Lord revealed?" — Is. 53: 1. 
 
 "But though he had done so many miracles before 
 them, yet they believed not on him; that the saying of 
 8 
 
ii4 The Revival of the Gifts of Healing. 
 
 Esaias might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who 
 hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of 
 the Lord been revealed?" 
 
 "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the 
 gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things ! 
 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias 
 saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?" 
 
NOV 1% 1S10 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div.